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Caden Howlett

Astro Weekly: Adrift in a Void

“Few people without a training in science can realize the huge isolation of the solar system. The sun with its specks of planets, its dust of planetoids, and its impalpable comets, swims in a vacant immensity that almost defeats the imagination. Beyond the orbit of Neptune there is space, vacant

Astro Weekly: The Fermi Paradox

There is a contradiction between the high probability estimates for the existence of life outside Earth and the absence of evidence for it. This contradiction is known in astronomy as the “Fermi paradox” and follows the line of reasoning below: 1. There are about 100 billion stars in the Milky

Astro Weekly: Collective Experience

On an autumn night at a local dive bar, a friend and I were having a discussion on the limited amount of life we have here on earth. I had recently finished reading Seneca’s “Dialogues and Essays”, in which he essentially claims that life is not actually short if

Astro Weekly: A mammalian emotion

We are in this together and it is going to kill us all. Regardless of the position we occupy in this world, whether we are basking in the glowing light of great success or recovering from an impact with rock bottom, we share the same fate. Consciously aware of this

Astro Weekly: The illusion of self

What does it feel like to be reading this? If you are a human being, it probably feels like you are absorbing these symbols via the eye and subsequently unmixing and interpreting them (this happens very quickly, and we usually do it subconsciously). But what does it mean for “you”

Astro Weekly: “The Mountain"

I find few things more awe-inspiring and humbling than planet Earth’s mountain ranges. Formed over tens to hundreds of millions of years, mountains are made manifest by the unparalleled power of plate tectonics. As plates scrape past one another, diverge, and crash together, the rocky crust of our

Astro Weekly: Nature’s Indifference

This eloquent passage brings forward several points that I have found very helpful to consider not only in scientific work but also existential ponderings. First, it serves as a reminder of the great antiquity of our planet, a humbling reminder of the fact that Earth (and life for that matter)