Inspirational

It's not often that I watch something on TV these days and walk away inspired to do something or to learn more, last night was an exception however. I studiously managed to avoid any hint of anything to do with the Oscars and instead watched the first episode of a new science series on BBC2/BBC HD called "The wonder of the solar system".

I must congratulate Professor Brian Cox on a great job, I thought he handled a complex subject in an easily consumable and engaging way, and the photography was stunning. I particularly liked the shots of the Iguazu falls and the interplanetary CGI integrated nicely into the real shots from the Hubble etc. It was also nice to hear about Voyager I again, this little spaceship has been hurtling through the darkness now for over 30 years, and is almost at the Heliopause, the boundary where the Solar wind ceases to have an effect. If it makes it, Voyager will be the first man-made object to actually leave our Solar system and venture into the unknown of interstellar space completely outside the influence of the Sun.

One of the aspects of the program that really came across well I thought was the fact of the enormity of our Galaxy. Voyager has been travelling since 1977 at speeds in excess of 10 miles per second, even so, to reach our next nearest star (Proxima Centauri) at that speed will take another 75,000 years, at which point the radio signal from it (travelling at 186,000 miles per second) will take over 4 years to reach us, and I thought it was a long way to the newsagents!