I've been writing about the Universe for many years now. Whether it's looking down at our home planet or up into the farthest reaches of the heavens, I am in awe of everything about it.

This is what it looks like to live in my head:

This photo by astrophotographer Ben Canales is everything I love about my job.

Among our greatest assets are human curiosity and our hard-won ability to reason things out. Sharing what comes out of these is a true pleasure.

The most amazing things about the Universe are that we are a part of it, and that we can understand it at all.

[I follow Ben on Google+, where he posts one astonishing photo after another. This one was shot at 3,000+ meters (10,000 feet) atop the South Sister volcano in Oregon.]