Human Universe (32 page)

Our message to worlds beyond our own. The Voyager probes carried this phonograph on which were recorded sounds and images that would reflect life on Earth.

Jerry R. Ehman’s now-famous printout which illustrates the strongest signal ever recorded by the Big Ear – known as the Wow! signal because of his annotation.

This illustration highlights the location of the Wow! signal. It was found to be coming from the constellation Sagittarius near the Chi Sagittarii star group, from one of the two red bands marked here.

Outside the Goldilocks Zone – Jupiter from Europa, where it is possible life exists in the sub-surface liquid water.

Stromatolites are layered structures which are one of the oldest records of life on Earth; the fossil remains within them date back 3.5 billion years.

Theoretically the first encounter of a space-faring civilisation is more likely to be with a self-replicating robot than with the actual life form. This computer artwork shows a nanorobot assembler using a claw to attach itself to a bacterium.

Filming the return of the Expedition 38 crew from the International Space Station to the Kazak Steppe was one of the wildest adventures I have ever experienced. That we got to see it is a testament to the determination of man!

When I was young I dreamt of being an astronaut – it was why I became interested in astronomy and physics. Floating in a most peculiar way in the ISS simulator tank is the closest I will ever get.

Charlie Duke was the Pilot of
Orion
, the Apollo 16 Lunar Module. He is shown here collecting lunar samples at Station no. 1 during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity at the Descartes landing site. The photograph was taken by Astronaut John W, Young. commander.

A snowy walk in Prague led Johannes Kepler to formulate The Kepler Conjecture, based on the symmetrical, hexagonal structure of the snowflakes that settled around him.

The chemical waves in this solution demonstrate the theory that just a tiny alteration in conditions or contents can cause an altered image, such as a dust particle on the surface or the level of moisture in the air.

This computer simulation reveals the type of particle collision that occurs within the Large Hadron Collider which is expected to produce quark-gluon plasma.

A global initiative, the ‘Doomsday’ seed vault is located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago. The purpose of the depository is to store duplicates of all seed samples from crop collections around the world.