Today, I am thankful for those who explore unchartered territories for the betterment of humankind.
In the early 17th Century, the Republic of Venice was a cornerstone of trade in the world. Merchant ships from all over the globe would embark to this city state in northeastern Italy with precious goods from Asia, Africa, and other parts of the known world. However, menacing pirate ships would often sit on the outer borders of the harbor and confiscate the valuable commodities intended for the Venetians. In an effort to minimize this thievery, the Venetian Senate explored a number of tools to halt these despicable transgressions in its waterways. On this day (Aug 25) in 1609, an eccentric mathematician who had studied mathematics at Pisa and assumed the professorship at the University of Padua, just 40 miles from the islands of Venice, presented an interesting long-tube invention he had created to the Venetian Senate. Taking a few senators up to one of the towers overlooking the Venice harbor, he demonstrated how someone peering through one side of the long tube could easily observe the activities of the crews on the various sea-faring caravans in the far distance. The amazed Senate purchased these ‘telescopes’ from the mathematician, a man known as Galileo Galilei.
In short order, Galileo would use this same invention to peer upward into the skies. As the ‘Father of Observational Astronomy,’ Galileo would chronicle his interesting findings of celestial bodies in space. As a result, the world would soon appreciate that the planet Jupiter had a constellation of four moons and the planet Saturn was surrounded by an elaborate ring system. Galileo would also teach us the phases of other planets like Venus and introduce us to the black ‘sunspots’ that occasionally appear on our solar system’s life source. He would also begin to champion the heliocentric viewpoints of one of his scientific predecessors, Nicolaus Copernicus, much to the dismay and ardent disapproval of the Roman Catholic Church.
Despite his eventual conviction of heresy and home imprisonment, Galileo would set into motion our avid interest in the solar system and other galaxies that exist beyond the planet Earth. As technology improved well into the late 20th Century, space exploration became a reality with the eventual missions of the Soviet Union and the United States, culminating in our repeated journeys to the Moon and the creation of an international space system. However, today, I wanted to pay tribute to that one human-made object that eventually made its way beyond the reaches of our own solar system.
In the late summer of 1977, NASA launched two spacecraft with the sole intent of exploring the distant parts of our solar system. Known as Voyagers 1 and 2, these odd-looking contraptions were set on different paths and at varying velocities to explore the distant celestial bodies and beyond. Although launched after Voyager 2, the swifter Voyager 1 soon became the spacecraft that attracted the world’s attention, when it raced passed the planets of Jupiter and Saturn. The cameras on the spacecraft shared captivating photos of these two largest planets, while uncovering two new moons each on both Jupiter (Thebe and Metis) and Saturn (Prometheus and Pandora). The floating mechanical apparatus also uncovered a new Saturn ring, the G ring. However, Voyager 1 did not stop there. The Voyager 1 continued passed Uranus and Neptune, ultimately reaching the farthest portion of the solar system. On this exact day (Aug 25) in 2012, exactly 403 days after Galileo unveiled his telescope in Venice, Voyager II departed the distant reach of the solar system (known as the ‘heliopause’) and entered into what we call ‘interstellar space’, a place where the constant flow of material or the magnetic pull of the sun is no longer felt. At this point, the Voyager 1 was estimated to be a bit more than 11 billion miles from the Sun.
Amazingly, the 42-year old Voyager 1 continues onward exploring the far reaches of the galaxy, as does its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2 (which incidentally has now also crossed into interstellar space). At a speed of 34,000+ miles per hour, Voyager 1 travels about 290 million miles per year. Although the spacecraft is expected to stop transmitting information back to Earth by 2025, Voyager 1 will continue to travel onward until its next major encounter when it comes into contact with its first star, AC+793888, in about 40,000 years.
Let’s hope someone or something eventually connects with this spacecraft. In the event such an unlikely event were to transpire, the Voyager is well equipped with copper disks showing the space creature how to operate the spacecraft, a map of where Earth is, and two 12-inch golden phonographic recordings of pictures and sounds from Earth, including human greetings in 55 languages, animal sounds, and the music of Chuck Berry. It’s a fitting gesture and one worthy of acknowledgment at the official start today of Be Kind to Humankind Week.
I’m not sure how extraterrestrial beings might respond to this somewhat esoteric information about the planet Earth. My guess is they will probably turn their own spacecraft around and fly away in a different direction, far from the solar system where those unusual creatures known as humans reside.
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