Polaris tagged posts

If you have visited an island like one of the Hawaiian Islands, Tahiti or Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, you may have noticed how small these land masses appear against the vast Pacific Ocean. If you’re on Hawaii, the nearest island to you is more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away, and the coast of the continental United States is more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away. To say these islands are secluded is an understatement.

For me, watching the movie “Moana” in 2016 was eye-opening. I knew that Polynesian people traveled between a number of Pacific islands, but seeing Moana set sail on a canoe made me realize exactly how small those boats are compared with what must have seemed like an endless ocean...

Messages from the earth will be beamed to the stars. Credit: Paul Quast

Messages from around the world are to be beamed into space at the speed of light as part of a cultural project to create a celestial time capsule. In autumn 2016, dispatches from the public will be converted into radio waves and broadcasted towards the North Star, Polaris, this autumn, reaching their destination in 434 years. The interstellar message in a bottle will comprise of people’s responses to a single question: how will our present environmental interactions shape the future?

A Simple Response to an Elemental Message is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh, and the UK Astronomical Technology Centre (UKATC) along with other partners...