To Stand in Awe Before the Universe

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:

The Universe is big. We are not. Credit: Ben Canales

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.]