Alec's Story about Arrokoth
Everything else that's conceivably in our reach in our grandchildren's lifetime is an airless rock that will kill you in seconds without a space suit. This is a snapshot I took early this morning and it gives you a sense of where we are in the universe. Man, we are a long way back. No one's ever heard of us. Not necessarily a bad thing. They might come and eat us if they find out about us.
So the entire astrophysical community lost their minds about five years ago. In 2019, the New Horizons spaceship whose job had been to survey Pluto, had had a very successful mission there, three billion miles from Earth.
They managed to get all these photos back - got the first close-up - looked at Pluto and everyone said, "Wow, this is one of NASA's greatest missions."
And then the spaceship just kept going. It didn't stop, and they're saying, "Well, what are we going to do next?" So they pointed it at this flashing object out there in the Kuiper Belt. And now they're another billion miles on the other side of Pluto, so they're four billion miles away. And after a while it arrived and there it is. A rock called Arrokoth. That's what they found after traveling for four billion miles:
Imagine if they docked on Mars and they saw a sulphur-crested cockatoo. They would lose their minds. Yet we walk past it every day here. People have become desensitized to what a wondrous place this world is. We know of nowhere else in the universe.
It doesn't matter, all of the wondrous things that science has done for us over the last decades - yes, great achievements. But nowhere that even vaguely resembles anywhere you want to move to.
The key point here is, we live on this astonishing planet where we can breathe the air, we can drink the water, we can eat the vegetation, where we are surrounded by the most astonishing wildlife doing the most astonishing things.This is a really astonishing place and we are a long way from anywhere. What we are doing to it as a species is totally barking nuts. That is the only possible analysis.
Everything else that's conceivably in our reach in our grandchildren's lifetime is an airless rock that will kill you in seconds without a space suit. This is a snapshot I took early this morning and it gives you a sense of where we are in the universe. Man, we are a long way back. No one's ever heard of us. Not necessarily a bad thing. They might come and eat us if they find out about us.
So the entire astrophysical community lost their minds about five years ago. In 2019, the New Horizons spaceship whose job had been to survey Pluto, had had a very successful mission there, three billion miles from Earth.
They managed to get all these photos back - got the first close-up - looked at Pluto and everyone said, "Wow, this is one of NASA's greatest missions."
And then the spaceship just kept going. It didn't stop, and they're saying, "Well, what are we going to do next?" So they pointed it at this flashing object out there in the Kuiper Belt. And now they're another billion miles on the other side of Pluto, so they're four billion miles away. And after a while it arrived and there it is. A rock called Arrokoth. That's what they found after traveling for four billion miles:
Imagine if they docked on Mars and they saw a sulphur-crested cockatoo. They would lose their minds. Yet we walk past it every day here. People have become desensitized to what a wondrous place this world is. We know of nowhere else in the universe.
It doesn't matter, all of the wondrous things that science has done for us over the last decades - yes, great achievements. But nowhere that even vaguely resembles anywhere you want to move to.
The key point here is, we live on this astonishing planet where we can breathe the air, we can drink the water, we can eat the vegetation, where we are surrounded by the most astonishing wildlife doing the most astonishing things.This is a really astonishing place and we are a long way from anywhere. What we are doing to it as a species is totally barking nuts. That is the only possible analysis.
You might like...
Life on Earth
Life has existed on planet earth for at least 3.5 billion years. Over this time, an intricate web of life has evolved, and more than 2 million different types of plants and animals now call Earth home.
Amazon Basin
The Amazon River basin encompasses the largest rainforest ecosystem and up to 30% of all of the species of plants and animals on planet Earth
David Attenborough on how to save our planet
Naturalist Sir David Attenborough addresses the biggest question of our times - how to save our planet.
Newsletter
Sign up to keep in touch with articles, updates, events or news from Kuno, your platform for nature