The movie Stranger Things shows what it looks like to see strange things on Earth but that is fiction. What happens when the strange things are real? When they come in the form of unfamiliar words, impossible numbers, and deep mysteries that feel too complex to understand? These are the kinds of questions often reserved for scientists in laboratories, peering through telescopes on mountaintops, or studying the distant parts of space that many people believe might even be home to aliens.

For Lisa Grossman, however, these mysteries are not meant to stay confusing or distant. She is a science journalist who writes about the universe in a way that feels less like a boring lecture where students struggle to stay awake while pretending to pay attention and more like a story you actually want to follow. As a staff reporter for Science News, she covers topics such as planets, asteroids, galaxies, and other cosmic discoveries, breaking them down so that readers without a science background can understand without feeling lost, like a sheep without a shepherd.

Grossman often begins with a simple idea or an unexpected discovery, rather than overwhelming her readers with technical terms. She makes you pause, think, and quietly say to yourself, “Wait… that’s interesting.” From there, she gently lights the path through the science, explaining what researchers discovered, how they discovered it, and why it matters in the bigger picture of understanding the universe.

What truly defines her writing is clarity. Complex space phenomena are compared to everyday experiences, making the vast and distant universe feel closer to home. You do not need to be an astronomer to understand her articles; curiosity is enough. That, perhaps, is the real beauty of her work.

• In a world where science can often feel intimidating, Lisa Grossman reminds us that space is not only for experts. It is for everyone who has ever looked up at the sky and wondered: Are there aliens out there? What exists beyond what we can see? And what is really out there in the universe?