We only see stars
by Norazha Paiman
that died millennia past—
the sky is a tomb.
Due to the finite speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second) and the vast distances in space, we observe celestial objects not as they are now, but as they were when their light began its journey to Earth.
A light-year is the distance light travels in one year (approximately 9.46 trillion kilometers). This temporal delay means that astronomy is fundamentally the study of the past; every observation is historical documentation, and the present state of the universe remains forever invisible to us. The night sky is effectively an archive of extinct or transformed objects whose light continues to travel long after the original source has changed or ceased to exist.
Further reading:
‘What is a light year?’, 2021, Gordon, J. & Childers, T., Space.com, available: https://www.space.com/light-year.html
‘Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries’, 2007, Tyson, N. D., W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978-0393062243.
Author bio:
Norazha Paiman teaches English and Greek and Latin in Scientific Terminology at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, where his research bridges psychometrics and poetics. He writes poetry that reimagines how science feels, with work appearing in Poetizer, Substack, Consilience, and Poets for Science.