Over the Hedge by T Lewis and Michael Fry for June 12, 2021

Other than nebulas (some of which are galaxies), almost all the stars visible to the naked eye are within a few hundred light years. Especially stars visible from near suburbia.

I once wished upon Alpha Centauri and had to wait 4.37 years for it to become true.

It’s likely that most of the stars that you can see right now will look pretty much the same now as they would thousands of years from now. Evidence indicates that most stars “live” for billions of years.

Yet conversation is instantaneous.

With that in mind live for the moment :-)

It’s hard for me to stargaze. Too many streetlights.

This is one reason why searching for intelligent life outside of our solar system is a waste of time. Communications couldn’t travel faster than the speed of light so, if we said “Hi”, it would be thousands of years before they heard it, and that would only happen if they had their antennas pointed in exactly the right direction when the signal arrived. Assuming they understood the signal and replied, it would take thousands more years before we heard the reply “Hi, how are you”. And if our antennas weren’t pointed in exactly the right direction at exactly the right time, we’d miss their answer. All that time, money and resources would be better spent looking for intelligent life hear on earth.

George fast-forwarded millions of years; I wonder if any galaxies, that far away would be visible to the naked eye.

George is just not a star-struck kind of guy!Good to see you George!

I like George.

So… sound travels faster than light? ??

George is so sweet he didn’t mean to offend the star.

So … a thousand years ago, the star anticipated George’s comment and included a “none taken” with its light?

George probably saw it when it was new.

How far away from Earth’s surface is the light that we see?