By Kate Hennessy

If you think it’s the hot, blonde Cylon in the tight, red dress that makes sci fi series Battlestar Gallactica so popular, think again. (And no, it’s not the hot, blonde Starbuck either…)

Why, it’s their search for Earth of course! We identify, all of us, in the Battlestar’s desperate quest to find home. Losing one’s possessions is never pleasant. Losing Earth entirely? Yep – that’s material for a big budget, four-part series alright. *

And, if real-life tales from the astronauts who’ve seen Earth from afar are anything to go by, our ‘connection’ with Earth is amplified, not diminished, by our distance from it.Journalist Robert Poole from the Los Angeles times reports: “Forty years after the first moonwalk, NASA chose to lead its anniversary coverage with Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders’ comment about the Earth.

“We came all this way to the moon, and yet the most significant thing we’re seeing is our own home planet …”

That fact alone shows how much the focus has changed since the first Space Age, when it seemed that everyone on Earth was looking outward into space. Ironically, what made the astronauts different was that they alone could look back home.”

So awed by the sight of Earth from space were the Apollo 11 astronauts that words seemed to fail them. Neil Armstrong is famously quoted as likening the spectacle to “a big blue eyeball”, while Micheal Collins opted for “a blue-and-white golf ball”.

Luckily, Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman managed a little more poeticism on spying Earth whilst in lunar orbit. Again, from Poole’s report:

“It was the most beautiful, heart-catching sight of my life, one that sent a torrent of nostalgia, of sheer homesickness, surging through me. It was the only thing in space that had any colour to it … This must be what God sees.”

Ah, Earth, how we love thee…

For those of us unlikely to be in lunar orbit anytime soon, there’s always the spherical Magik Planet projector featured at ‘Science in the City‘ in Sydney.

Alas, the audio’s a little scratchy here, but the friendly demonstrator from The University of Sydney’s School of GeoSciences is showing me the weather patterns encircling our “big blue eyeball” during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Science in the City is an event reserved for school kids, however for those living near Wagga Wagga or Norfolk Island, the Bureau of Meteorology is holding open days. Dead keen to work out how weathermen ply their trade? Head along and never plan another doomed picnic again! You can find out more here and here.

Lastly, for those content only to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, NASA astronaut Megan Macarthur will be touring Australia as one of the four national tour guests. Megan will be talking about her experiences working for NASA and what it’s like in space at a public event at Fort Street School, Observatory Hill, on August 15th. See Megan’s full tour itinerary here.

Over and out fellow Earthlings.

* The Battlestar Gallactica clip posted above is highly-recommended viewing … as is the whole series. Stop harbouring your nostalgic love of the 1970s original – trust me, it’s got nothing on the new one!

Tags: astronaut, Megan McArthur, space

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