I’ve always wanted to be a space traveler, ever since I was a kid. The first place I remember wanting to visit was Saturn because I saw a picture of it in a book. It was such an alien-looking place.

Later on, as I grew older, I focused on Mars. Not sure why, but it was a great kids’ game to play “search for monsters on Mars” in the fields near our house. When I outgrew that it was the mid-60s and NASA was sending people in orbit around Earth and testing for the Apollo missions. Then I guess I wanted to go to the Moon.

Lately, I’ve been doing more work (writing and editing) about objects out as far in the universe as we can detect. These objects are galaxies, and some of them exist at a time when the universe was perhaps 700 to 800 thousand years old. That’s pretty darned early for a galaxy, given the current state of thought about galaxy evolution. But, if we’re seeing them that far back, then we’ll have to adjust our theories about how and when galaxies first formed. That’s the way science works. You observe it, then you explain it.

There are also black holes out there, not quite as far as the most distant galaxy, but darned close.

So, now I want to go to the most distant reaches of the universe and sample what happened back at the time when those distant galaxies and that black hole formed. Because, as you know, farther out in space takes you further back in time.

Of course, the best way for me to explore that era is to follow along as astronomers look farther out there, searching for the birth of the universe 13.7 billion years ago. It’s amazing to me, as that little kid who couldn’t wait to get to Saturn, that we can now see so far out in the cosmos.

So, where do YOU want to go?