Did you know that this year marks the 45th anniversary of the Delegation of the European Union to Canada?
Me neither, until immediately prior to writing the previous sentence!
In celebration of that 45th anniversary, Science World is putting on a unique art exhibition. It’s a bit of a bird’s-eye view of our home planet… if the bird in question was in low Earth orbit.
I’m gonna tell you about Copernicus: Where Art Meets Science.
https://twitter.com/scienceworldca/status/1459329169398116353?s=20
The images in this exhibition have all been captured during the Copernicus Programme, made officially operational in 2014. Aptly named after – who else? – the Renaissance mathematician and astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, this Earth observation program has come up with plenty of fascinating visual data captured from on high.
https://twitter.com/CopernicusEU/status/1467061627728142339?s=20
The exhibit showcases twenty-four photos taken by various Sentinel satellites over the years, over many different European and Canadian locations. One such location is the Manicouagan Reservoir in Québec, created by the impact of a meteor from the Triassic period, five kilometers across. Even Googling unrelated pictures of it was incredibly interesting – and no, I’m not making that up. It’s actually cool. Try it.
The overarching goal of the Copernicus Programme is to “improve the quality of life worldwide”, according to their website. This YouTube video has more:
I found it curious, as I was reading about this space program, that Canada was not officially a data-sharing or budgetary partner for the Copernicus Programme, but I suppose that’s in the works.
All of this to say: you should absolutely head over to Science World and check this exhibit out before it’s gone in the new year. Seeing pictures of Earth from space sounds blasé, but when you’re faced with so many of these images at once, it’s truly quite something.
Plus, even if you see the Manicouagan Reservoir every day, even if it’s literally your backyard, you are categorically too teeny-tiny to take in its full majesty. So you may as well go have a peek at the cool space pictures.