I made my first appearance on ABC Radio National last week with a story on The Science Show. It was a wonderful opportunity to talk about Carl Sagan and the Voyager missions, which I’ve been fascinated by for many years.
Voyager 1 and 2 were launched by NASA in 1977 to explore the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, carrying with them their famous Golden Records. They provided humanity with the first close up photos of the four gas giant planets and dozens of moons.
But perhaps the most famous photo was taken in 1990 when the camera was turned around and pointed back towards the Earth. From 6 billion kilometres away, our home planet is just a Pale Blue Dot:
This subject matter also inspired actor Lachlan Woods and the Optic Nerve Performance Group at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre to create their recent production “Pale Blue Dot”.
You can listen to the story about Pale Blue Dot and how science inspires the arts on The Science Show’s website, or by clicking play on the player below:
Kind regards,
David M. Green
Probably the first time I’ve put my radio skills towards something useful.
