Summary

Tyson dedicates this chapter to the physical and chemical appearance of Earth from various points in the cosmos, attempting to determine what signals Earth would give to an intelligent far-away species of life. He begins his physical analysis of Earth from the smallest level, where one might see “a vein of pink limestone on the wall of a canyon, a ladybug eating an aphid on the stem of a rose, [or] a clamshell poking out from the sand” (178). Ascending first into Earth’s airspace, Tyson notes one can no longer see clams or ladybugs, and even identifying major roadways “becomes a challenge” (178). He then places his reader aboard the International Space Station, where all manmade objects fall from sight, but natural wonders like “hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, ice floes in the North Atlantic, and volcanic eruptions wherever they occur” (180). From the...