Starborn

Long before electric light, people spent their nights under the same sky, and the glow of modern cities has dimmed the closeness that earlier generations felt toward the cosmos. Cosmologist Roberto Trotta examines how looking upward has shaped the development of human civilization. Stars have kept time, helped people find their way, and inspired poets and thinkers. In some cultures they were treated as gods. Trotta also imagines a counterfactual: what if our ancestors had gazed up and seen only emptiness? He sketches a starless world in which science, art, and our sense of who we are would have developed very differently. Tracing the hidden links between astronomy and civilization, the book invites readers to step outside on a dark, clear night and take in the vast expanse overhead.