A Unique Day

Today is a unique day. For the first time in our history, humanity, via our robotic proxy, is touching a fresh world for the very first time. As I type this, the news is reporting that the Huygens space probe is descending through the atmosphere of Titan.

A century ago, man was barely taking to the air in rickets craft whose sustained flight time was measured in minutes. Now we are confidently sending sophisticated probes to the outer planets.

As I wrote in my ratfish blurb, we are, indeed, in the midst of a new era of discovery. In spite of all the turmoils and controversies that have beset us in this new century, it is still an exciting time to be alive.

If you are reading this from the norther hemisphere, Saturn should be visible in your night sky (in fact it's especially bright given that it's nearest approach to Earth was yesterday). If you can, I would suggest sparing a moment, tonight, to look up at it and to contemplate the fact that we are, at this moment, doing amazing things there.