The Craft Sails through Night
"Now there’s the long pass of the South Atlantic uninterrupted by land for some two thousand miles until the southernmost tip of Africa. But if the crew were watching and had adjusted their eyes, there’d be no sense of emptiness, only the immense consolation of that which they could never fathom or comprehend. And it’s through this night that their craft sails for a time, lost in the world." This passage beautifully evokes the vastness of space and the sensation of a spacecraft traversing the Earth’s surface. The "long pass of the South Atlantic" paints a serene image of the planet's geography as viewed from their angle. Moreover, the line about "immense consolation" subtly contrasts with the potentially unsettling emptiness of space. It emphasizes how the void can also feel full of meaning and wonder.
Sunrise in Space
The narrator says, "Every single time that blade of light cracks open and the sun explodes from it, a momentary immaculate star, then spills its light like a pail upended, and floods the earth, every time night becomes day in a matter of a minute, every time the earth dips through space like a creature diving and finds another day, day after day after day from the depth of space, a day every ninety minutes, every day brand new and of infinite supply, it staggers them." This imagery captures the mesmerizing routine of sunrise viewed from orbit. The descriptions of the sun’s light present a dynamic image of how light floods the Earth. Furthermore, the rapid transition from night to day is portrayed as an awe-inspiring phenomenon that staggers the astronauts every time. This passage displays the ceaseless wonder of witnessing planetary cycles from an extraordinary vantage point.
Earth and the Auroras
The auroras are depicted as almost sentient beings: "The flexing, morphing green and red of the auroras which snake around the inside of the atmosphere fretful and magnificent like something trapped…The light gains edges and limbs; folds and opens. Strains against the inside of the atmosphere, writhes and flexes. Sends up plumes. Fluoresces and brightens. Detonates then in towers of light." Their movements give them a frenetic energy as if the light is trying to break free from the confines of the Earth’s atmosphere. The imagery of "towers of light" evokes the auroras’ sheer power and scale. This scene vividly portrays the beauty of the natural world as seen from space.
Erosion of the Earth at Twilight
The narrator asserts, "At the brink of a continent the light is fading. The sea is flat and copper with reflected sun and the shadows of the clouds are long on the water. Asia come and gone. Australia a dark featureless shape against this last breath of light, which has now turned platinum. Everything is dimming. The earth’s horizon, which cracked open with light at so recent a dawn, is being erased." This description of Earth at twilight emphasizes the transient nature of light and dark. It creates an image of the Earth's surface bathed in the final glow of the setting sun. The simplicity of Earth's shapes in the dark captures the natural transition between day and night.
