It’s been a while since I’ve blogged (sorry about that, much has been going on in the last month but still), but I would be more than a little remiss if I didn’t share this amazing video:
This is Stardust from PostPanic director Mischa Rozema. It depicts Voyager 1, currently on its way out of our Solar System, “looking back” billions of years from now at our Sun as it becomes Giant, engulfing Earth, and dissipating as a Planetary Nebula. Earth and the Sun are returned to the Cosmos as stardust, while Voyager 1 carries with it a final message from the people of Earth: We were here.
Of course, the video has some inaccuracies takes some artistic license. The timeframe of the Sun’s demise will take place over a much longer time period than depicted in the film (as in millions of years longer). The Sun won’t become a planetary nebula until long after it has engulfed the inner planets and will span up to several light years across at the time. And Voyager 1 itself will have long stopped transmitting back to Earth, its Plutonium-238 power source having long since depleted by then.
But that’s ok, because that’s not the point of the film. Instead, it’s an artistic reminder that no matter how short our time here on Earth is, our real destiny is to return to the universe as the stardust that we are and to seed the next generation of stars.
When that time comes, Voyager 1 and the other probes will be out there, carrying a message for that next generation: We were here.
