Cosmic Journeys, a preview.

Why it works

Space is restful to think about for a simple reason: nothing out there is in a hurry and none of it needs you. The stories in this group travel slowly past rings, pillars of gas and small red stars, and explain each one gently. The deep noise on this page is roughly the mood they keep.

One honest note. The voice you hear in this preview is the site's single sample, the opening of Aristotle, which belongs to Ancient Worlds. The cosmic stories share its pace, its narrating style and its habit of giving the ending away first. They are listed below, each with its first minute written out.

What you are hearing

• Deep brown noise. The same brown noise low-passed at 180 Hz. Almost everything above a cello's lowest string is gone. It needs headphones or a real speaker.
• The voice. The first four minutes of Aristotle, the Greatest Philosopher, a Lullable story, in a synthesised voice. It only plays if you bring it in.
• The ending. The preview lasts four minutes. Its last ten seconds are a straight fade to silence, so it never stops abruptly.

Cosmic Journeys stories in the app

• A Slow Orbit Around a Black Hole, 48 minutes. From far enough away, a black hole is simply something to go around. Settle into a slow orbit at the center of the galaxy and watch the starlight bend.
• Floating Through the Pillars of Creation, 41 minutes. You rise from your own roof and keep going, past every planet, until the stars thicken into a cloud with three dark columns standing in the middle of it.
• Mapping the Cosmic Web, 45 minutes. The largest arrangement there is, and it does nothing in any hurry. It was found by people writing down one number a night, and none of it needs your attention tonight.
• The Hidden Clocks of the Night Sky, 19 minutes. The sky above your roof is the oldest clock there is, and it has never once run down or needed you to watch it. Let it keep the hour tonight. You can simply rest.
• The Life Cycle of a Red Dwarf Star, 44 minutes. Not one red dwarf has ever run down. The universe is far too young. Every single one ever made is still quietly burning, and none of it needs watching tonight.
• The Moons of Jupiter: Europa's Ice and Ocean, 46 minutes. There is no light down there and there never has been. The water simply turns over in the dark, as it has for a very long time, and none of it needs watching tonight.
• The Quiet Observatory: Questions About Time, 36 minutes. Time only flows, never hurries, never waits. Tonight it is only asking you to lie still while it carries you, the way it has carried every sleeper before you.
• Voyager 1: A Journey to Interstellar Space, 44 minutes. It left in 1977 and it is not going anywhere in particular. It is simply still going, steadily, and none of it needs watching tonight.

For a real recording that runs forty minutes, the Lullable iPhone app has rain, waves, a campfire and plain noise, with no voice and no music.