Rationale

Voyaging far, far away

The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977 and still going strong. Credit: NASA

A few months back I received an email from a friend. In it, he sent me a link to a New York Times article about the NASA spacecraft Voyager apparently exiting the solar system. This non-scientist-but-curious friend thought it was "completely fascinating", but he was interested to hear my "somewhat more sophisticated take on it".

I'm not sure they're sophisticated, but what follows here are some of my thoughts regarding the subject and why it is part of the inspiration for this blog.

Space exploration—in its purest sense—is about visiting new places because they are there, and because of the human need to go beyond what we already know. Voyager—sent to survey the outer parts of our solar system—is a perfect example of the human need to explore. From it, we have obtained some beautiful and striking images of the Jupiter and Saturn systems.

Photograph taken by Voyager of Io (one of Jupiter's moons), showing the plume of an active volcano. Credit: NASA

But for me, Voyager's most exciting achievement is what the New York Times was reporting back in September. Voyager—the farthest travelled human-made object—had crossed the heliopause, had left our local neighbourhood, and was headed into deep space.

Let me reiterate. A man-made object, for the first time, has left its home behind and is continuing to explore the unknown.

That's more than "completely fascinating", that's downright awe-inspiring.

However, it is not just Voyager's journey that is the link to this blog. It is also the message that it carries.

Voyager's 'Golden Record'. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech

Voyager's 'Golden Record' is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc that contains audio and visual missives from Earth. Included in these are greetings in 55 different languages, music by Beethoven and Chuck Berry, and a symbolic diagram that illustrates the spacecraft's origins. These carefully chosen representations of Earth were included on Voyager so that distant spacefarers encountering it in the future might learn about Earth and humanity.

But what if we had chosen something else to send forth to fellow space travellers? What if we sent things, not from the Earth, but of the Earth? What geological specimens would we choose to represent our home?

So please join me on my geological journey as I explore our planet's history, diversity, and secrets (and lots more besides).