Space
January 18th 2008 22:12
Category: Videos, Television
Presenter: Sam Neill.
Directors: Jeremy Turner & Luke Campbell.
Producers: Jeremy Turner & Luke Campbell.
Produced by: 2001 BBC/TLC co production.
Released by: 2002 BBC Worldwide.
Running Time: 176 minutes. Rating: E.
When I first saw the title of this show several years ago when it was first screened on the ABC the first thing that went through my mind was that line from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; Space is big,…really big. It’s a fairly obvious statement to make but then again can anyone really wrap their grey matter around how truly big space actually is, the enormity of the cosmos is not something easily comprehended it does tend to defy your sense of proportion. And you don’t even have to think about the entire universe to have this happen, just think about the size of our local stellar neighbourhood and you are confronted with gargantuan scales. It’s one hundred and fifty six million kilometres from Earth to the Sun; it’ll take the space probe Voyager over twenty five thousand years to reach the nearest stars at its current speed. These are fairly phenomenal figures and every saying them aloud or musing about them still doesn’t do justice to the scale involved.
Sam Neill is an extremely capable host for this engrossing series, strangely though this seems to have been his only venture into the field of documentaries so far, at least as far as I am aware of. He has a relaxed easy going presence on the screen and doesn’t’ so much talk at you but to you, the whole atmosphere of the show has a very conversational tone which frankly allows the audience the illusion that they’re actually actively engaged in a conversation with Sam rather than just getting something spoon fed to them. For a very long time the BBC has been a major documentary maker and could be considered to be the leader in this particular field and watching Space you can certainly see why that is the case.
So what specifically is Space all about, well the six episodes of the series covers all manner of subject pertaining to the universe at large though it is limited due to the length of the series and as said at the beginning the actual size of the subject itself. There is no getting away from it, space is tremendously vast and though there has been a large number of discoveries and theories made concerning space these probably don’t even make the slightest dint into the vastness that is our universe. Still the series does not try to cover all the aspects of space within the framework of a six part series, instead what it does do is paint a fairly focused picture pointing its attentions to what are considered key issues within the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology et al. These issues each take up one of the six episodes and they have been tailored to fit with the structure of the show. After all the series begins with the beginning of the universe and life on Earth and closes with the end of the sun and life on Earth, a fairly natural progression of events.
Still the demise of the sun and its consumption of the Earth in a fiery conflagration are not something that is going to happen any time soon. Science tells us that this kind of event is something that will occur billions of years in the future, in other words a long time from the moment at which your currently reading this review (unless you’re an archaeologist downloading this from an antiquated computer in some ruin – check out my other articles. Cheers!). In other words just like interstellar distances this is a fairly lengthy time period, one that does tend to stretch the old grey matter in trying to conceptualise it. But if you like to think about apocalyptic scenarios with a little bit more relevant time frame then the series has that as well.
Asteroid collisions and cometary impacts these could mean the end of the world as we know it, or least human civilization. Apparently the Earth and Humanity have been fairly lucky so far, there have been a few near misses over time but it could happen. Cheerful prospect…not. In fact an asteroid collision is more likely than a cometary impact as most asteroids floating around in space are in ‘closer’ vicinity to us than any comets – they have to come from way out in the Kuiper belt or Oort Cloud and that takes considerable time. Then there’s the chance that as they are making their way into the inner solar system that they could end up being swallowed by one of the various gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune. Usually though it’s Jupiter that ends up devouring any rouge stellar bodies hurtling towards the inner worlds.
Fortunately it’s not all doom and gloom, the series also looks at the possibility of alien life forms living on other worlds and what efforts are being undertaken to find such life. Within our own solar system this is primarily being focused on finding microbacteria on worlds such as Mars or Titan, the colossal moon of Saturn. Possibly their may even be life living on Europa, an ice covered satellite of Jupiter. Europa is believed to have oceans beneath the crust of ice that covers its surface and within that ocean it is postulated life may exist, possibly even near volcanic vents as is found in the deeps of our own worlds oceans. So far though no expedition has been sent to plunge into the icy brine of Europa’s waters and find out, though no doubt someone has something on the drawing board. Shades of Arthur C Clarke’s 2010 where there life did exist on Europa, intelligent life, and it lived in volcanic vents within the watery deeps. It would be an interesting example of life imitating art if probes discovered that this was precisely the case on that distant moon.
Of course the real question about extraterrestrial life is not only is there any within this solar system but does it exist on worlds orbiting around other stars? Here you would think that the volume of space itself would lead to the distinct possibility that life exists in some form or other on a world orbiting around one of the multitude of stars in this galaxy alone. Though whether we would be able to contact them or they would be able to contact us is the major obstacle – here distance and technology are the main hurdles. Travelling to the moon is one thing, travelling to say Alpha Centauri that’s a whole different matter. Radio telescopes are constantly scanning for signals and so far nothing has been heard and as far as travelling the vast interstellar deeps that seems to be a way off, still who knows what the future may hold.
Space; a finely crafted work illustrating the universe we live in and its many myriad wonders…and dangers, well worth a look.
Directors: Jeremy Turner & Luke Campbell.
Producers: Jeremy Turner & Luke Campbell.
Produced by: 2001 BBC/TLC co production.
Released by: 2002 BBC Worldwide.
Running Time: 176 minutes. Rating: E.
When I first saw the title of this show several years ago when it was first screened on the ABC the first thing that went through my mind was that line from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; Space is big,…really big. It’s a fairly obvious statement to make but then again can anyone really wrap their grey matter around how truly big space actually is, the enormity of the cosmos is not something easily comprehended it does tend to defy your sense of proportion. And you don’t even have to think about the entire universe to have this happen, just think about the size of our local stellar neighbourhood and you are confronted with gargantuan scales. It’s one hundred and fifty six million kilometres from Earth to the Sun; it’ll take the space probe Voyager over twenty five thousand years to reach the nearest stars at its current speed. These are fairly phenomenal figures and every saying them aloud or musing about them still doesn’t do justice to the scale involved.
Still the demise of the sun and its consumption of the Earth in a fiery conflagration are not something that is going to happen any time soon. Science tells us that this kind of event is something that will occur billions of years in the future, in other words a long time from the moment at which your currently reading this review (unless you’re an archaeologist downloading this from an antiquated computer in some ruin – check out my other articles. Cheers!). In other words just like interstellar distances this is a fairly lengthy time period, one that does tend to stretch the old grey matter in trying to conceptualise it. But if you like to think about apocalyptic scenarios with a little bit more relevant time frame then the series has that as well.
Asteroid collisions and cometary impacts these could mean the end of the world as we know it, or least human civilization. Apparently the Earth and Humanity have been fairly lucky so far, there have been a few near misses over time but it could happen. Cheerful prospect…not. In fact an asteroid collision is more likely than a cometary impact as most asteroids floating around in space are in ‘closer’ vicinity to us than any comets – they have to come from way out in the Kuiper belt or Oort Cloud and that takes considerable time. Then there’s the chance that as they are making their way into the inner solar system that they could end up being swallowed by one of the various gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune. Usually though it’s Jupiter that ends up devouring any rouge stellar bodies hurtling towards the inner worlds.
Fortunately it’s not all doom and gloom, the series also looks at the possibility of alien life forms living on other worlds and what efforts are being undertaken to find such life. Within our own solar system this is primarily being focused on finding microbacteria on worlds such as Mars or Titan, the colossal moon of Saturn. Possibly their may even be life living on Europa, an ice covered satellite of Jupiter. Europa is believed to have oceans beneath the crust of ice that covers its surface and within that ocean it is postulated life may exist, possibly even near volcanic vents as is found in the deeps of our own worlds oceans. So far though no expedition has been sent to plunge into the icy brine of Europa’s waters and find out, though no doubt someone has something on the drawing board. Shades of Arthur C Clarke’s 2010 where there life did exist on Europa, intelligent life, and it lived in volcanic vents within the watery deeps. It would be an interesting example of life imitating art if probes discovered that this was precisely the case on that distant moon.
Of course the real question about extraterrestrial life is not only is there any within this solar system but does it exist on worlds orbiting around other stars? Here you would think that the volume of space itself would lead to the distinct possibility that life exists in some form or other on a world orbiting around one of the multitude of stars in this galaxy alone. Though whether we would be able to contact them or they would be able to contact us is the major obstacle – here distance and technology are the main hurdles. Travelling to the moon is one thing, travelling to say Alpha Centauri that’s a whole different matter. Radio telescopes are constantly scanning for signals and so far nothing has been heard and as far as travelling the vast interstellar deeps that seems to be a way off, still who knows what the future may hold.
Space; a finely crafted work illustrating the universe we live in and its many myriad wonders…and dangers, well worth a look.
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