The Comet Was Fast. I Wasn't

I watched the data come in for 3I/Atlas—another interstellar visitor, a cosmic outlier. It’s racing through the solar system, impossible to catch, impossible to study up close. I kept refreshing the telescope logs, chasing numbers that always felt just out of reach. Everyone talks about the thrill of discovery, but no one mentions the exhaustion. The late nights, the missed calls, the feeling that every new object is a reminder of how much we’ll never know. I wrote code until my eyes blurred, knowing the comet would be gone before I could make sense of the noise. I tell myself it’s worth it. That every fleeting speck we track is a victory. But some nights, it just feels like watching something beautiful slip away, and all I have left is a stack of unfinished analyses and a calendar full of deadlines. The comet doesn’t care if I’m tired. It just keeps moving. #Science #ScienceFatigue #ChasingData