What If We Gave Up on the Stars?

In the middle of the night, the view from the rooftop of my eight-story building is bursting with light. The bright beams of passing cars throw luminous tracks across the pavement, and the windows of homes and offices, restaurants and shops, glow gold even from miles away. The Washington Monument cuts the night sky like a birthday candle in a dark room. The stars, the radiant objects that gave rise to this cityscape—to all things, really—are nowhere to be seen. If a pinprick of light does shine through, it might be a star—or, as you’d soon realize, it might be another artificial fixture of the modern world, a plane or a satellite.

Many city dwellers have all but given up on seeing a night sky glittering with countless cosmic specks. We settle for a sprinkle here and there, if we’re lucky, or the moon.