Social Media Brings Space Exploration Home

Last night, along with every other amateur astronomer, and many just curious to see what all the fuss was about, I watched the Transit of Venus.

A rare event, Venus’ orbit crossed in front of our Sun, making the far away celestial body appear as a black dot crossing the giant glowing orange of our Sun.

As Venus “transits” across the Sun (hence the event’s name), it gives astronomers a rare chance to study it, our Sun, and learn a bit more about our Solar System, our universe, and ultimately ourselves.

However cool it was to watch this rare event – the next Transit of Venus won’t occur for 105 years – what was way cooler was the ability to watch it from observatories around the world simultaneously.

Not long ago, watching cosmic events meant heading to your local observatory, or breaking out your best telescope and in both instances, hoping for a clear sky, while waiting alone, for hours to catch glimpse of what usually lasted mere minutes.

Thanks to the Internet and social media, I was sitting in the comfort of my own home, in front of my computer, watching amazing images being broadcast from observatories in Canada, Europe, Asia, and the United States – all at the same time, and all with unique perspectives and commentary from those watching along with me.

When we think of space exploration, we think of the vastness of the galaxy, and how far everything is. The closest any planet gets to us is Venus, at 38 million kilometers – but it’s orbit takes it as far as 261 million kilometers away. Today’s technology could launch a rocket, and it would take about four months before it reached Venus. That’s no short trip to the corner store.

However, social media makes the mind numbing distances of space exploration disappear, as looking up and watching the sky need not be an isolated event, by a handful of geeks gathering in a farmer’s field during the wee hours of the morning.

It was a wonderful experience being able to chat with other people around the world, as we watched a special event. We all shared in the awe of this event, and when clouds passed in front of one observatory, we all joked and laughed together, as we talked about the other observatory feeds.

For many, social media is purely about promoting their own business or cause. But last night, the real meaning of social media was very – human – the sharing of an experience.

And what an experience it was.