Following that invitation, humanity has repeatedly used the stars to venture further. Polynesian wayfinders navigated the Pacific by starlight, a tradition celebrated by the Hōkūleʻa’s modern voyages (revived in 1976). Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius (1610) turned telescopic curiosity into a new cosmos. More recently, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (2004) revealed swarms of galaxies in what looked like emptiness, Kepler (2009) uncovered thousands of exoplanets, and the James Webb Space Telescope (launched 2021) now probes the atmospheres of distant worlds. Each advance exemplifies the quote’s spirit: the sky does not scold; it summons. Our instruments are, quite literally, RSVP replies to the universe’s invitation. [...]
