Jonathan Powell reflects on where our finite understanding meets infinite space
Jonathan Powell is a freelance writer and broadcaster. A former correspondent at BBC Radio Wales, he is currently astronomy columnist at the South Wales Argus
As a species, the gradual unveiling of the mysteries of the Universe has only been achieved through the results of our own innovation, unaided and unassisted by anyone else. From early cave paintings that captured the heavens, to tracking the motions of stars and planets to form basic calendars, to agricultural usage, with the planting and reaping of crops. Soon, though, instead of just observing the points of light in the night sky, great minds such as Ptolemy, Copernicus and Kepler turned to attempts at explaining them.
Landmark timeline events serve as poignant reminders of the parallel relationship between the human mind and the Universe. Galileo’s telescopic sketching of Saturn in the early 1600s, and in particular that of the planet’s rings, were humankind’s ‘first light’ on an object that had been waiting billions of years for technology on Earth to sufficiently advance in order to make such an observation. Galileo’s puzzlement over what he saw as Saturn’s ‘arms’ was duly solved, as the optical revolution of the time allowed Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens to declare in 1659 that those ‘arms’ were in fact rings. As Galileo opened that first door, Huygens opened the second, and the momentum continued as the centuries passed, eventually leading to the Pioneer, Voyager and Cassini–Huygens missions.
Environmental philosopher John Muir (1838–1914), wrote that “the clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness”. Just as a torch beam illuminates the interior of a cave as the explorer ventures deeper into its labyrinth, the path towards our own understanding is one revealed a step at a time. Those shafts of light through the forest canopy to the ground have not only produced discoveries upon our journey, but enhanc
