The next couple of nights, if you look up into the sky you might be able to see a fuzzy patch of greenish light zip past Earth. That’s the Comet Lulin which is getting close to our planet…38 million miles away, more or less. Author Evalyn Gates says astronomers are poised to see deeper into space than ever before. She writes that the discoveries awaiting us there could fundamentally change the way we see the universe. 

Evalyn Gates is an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago, and author of the new book, Einstein’s Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe. She explains why it’s important to learn how to see in the dark.