These cliffs are always reminding us of the ‘End of the Earth’ - here indeed ends, it seems like it just falls into the deep dark sea.
Read MoreKWAGGA, ITEMBA ACCELERATOR-BASED SCIENCES, CAPE TOWN, WESTERN CAPE
'This is a beam dump - where the beam comes through from the target. This is the end of protons life! Obviously if we don't stop protons here, they will carry on traveling and they would probably be leaving the facility and moving at a speed equal to around the world four times in a second... usually we have an average of maybe 10 million, millions, particles per second ending their life here"
Dr. Pete Jones, Senior Researcher, IThemba LABS, Cape Town
BEAM-DUMP, ITHEMBA LABS, CAPE TOWN
This part is where the accelerated charged particles that haven’t interact with the target nuclei are stopped.
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I become very happy when I’m up there, partly because of nature, you see all kinds of natural things. Also the mirrors, how they clean the mirrors and how they are so busy with the the machinery and all those things - it’s all beautiful. I left school early, but I did have science at school, and it attracts me - when I see the things they do. It makes me curious to learn about the telescopes.’
Anna van Wyk, Sutherland local.
INSIDE SALT (SOUTH AFRICAN LARGE TELESCOPE), SAAO, SUTHERLAND, NORTHERN CAPE
I become very happy when I’m up there, partly because of nature, you see all kinds of natural things. Also the mirrors, how they clean the mirrors and how they are so busy with the the machinery and all those things - it’s all beautiful. I left school early, but I did have science at school, and it attracts me - when I see the things they do. It makes me curious to learn about the telescopes.’
Anna van Wyk, Sutherland local.
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AUSTRALOPITHECUS AFRICANUS, STERKFONTEIN CAVES, THE CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, GAUTENG
Deep in the Sterkfontein caves some of the remains of our early ancestors have been kept safe from the elements on the surface.
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THE LANDING #2, (FROM “SWART STER OOR DIE KAROO, JAN RABIE 1957), TABLE MOUNTAIN, CAPE TOWN, WESTERN CAPE
'They stared, and then see it taking on a form …a lump to the left, and flat in the middle, and a pointed, smaller peak to the right. Yes, yes. Table Mountain between Devil's Peak and Lion's Head. For a moment they were overwhelmed with real joy, before the paralysis return. What terrible tragedy happened here? There are no traces of a city anymore, just ice. It is Jordaan who sees it first, a small glossy lump above the ice, a structure like a glass dome. There they will probably land.'
Photograph inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. In the novel future humans are living inside Table Mountain as it is too cold outside.
The name Tswaing means "place of salt" in Tswana and the crater was also formerly known in English as Pretoria Saltpan crater and in Afrikaans as Soutpankrater.
The meteorite was probably about the size of an average house and it would have taken no more than 10 seconds to slam into the ground after entering the Earth's atmosphere, releasing the energy of about 100 Hiroshima atom bombs. Life within a 35-kilometre radius would have been wiped out.
TSWAING CRATER, SOSHANGUVE, PRETORIA
‘Well there is a big mark in time, Soutpan, Tswaing. I don’t know how many million people would die if it would happen today but it was 200 000 years ago. I forget the size of the meteorite - a few thousand tons, and it threw up this central point and a ring of hills. There are legends - nobody will go there at night. It’s called the hills of the spirits.’
Tom Learmont, Sci-fi Writer, Johannesburg
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EVA STELLARIS PLANT (FROM "SWART STER OOR DIE KAROO, JAN RABIE 1957), ITHEMBA LABS, CAPE TOWN
From ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. Eva Stellaris was sent as a helper from the future with an assignment to specifically help with biological and hydroponic work - as an attempt for humans to stay alive living underground as it was too cold above ground.
Read MoreOLD ROAD, R354 BETWEEN MATJIESFONTEIN AND SUTHERLAND
Some of the evidence remaining of the old main route to Sutherland - these lines of rocks can be seen from the R354 currently in use. The inside of the old road seems to have fully restored over time, looking exactly the same as the fynbos surrounding it. We were wondering if the same fate awaits the R354.
Read MoreJURG WAGENER, STAR GAZER, STERLAND, SUTHERLAND, NORTHERN CAPE
’You have to be devoted, I’m basically outside every night. I meet so many people, and it gives me a reward - when people say they enjoyed it. Lastly I would say you learn how insignificant we are in the greater universe and it makes you feel humble - that is the way I want to look at it every night. If you look at the whole concept, I have to agree that it is not only our world - it is such a vast area, it is a never ending story… where do you stop, where do you begin? Once again it makes you feel very humble.’
Jurg Wagener, Star Gazer
Read MoreDETAIL, R354 BETWEEN MATJIESFONTEIN AND SUTHERLAND
Our consideration of what is large and what is small is constantly provoked as we experience the many details of the landscape. Even then as we use ourselves as a type of scale and our bodies are in turn observed by the landscape - it all becomes a loop of relativity. From the mere thought of what we consider the smallest atomic parts to the imagining of other distant heavenly bodies without measure.
Read MoreSCATTERING CHAMBER AND TARGET LADDER, ITHEMBA LABS, CAPE TOWN
‘This is where the interaction between the charged particles of the beam and the target nuclei take place. From the analysis of the reaction products it is possible to understand nuclear structure properties and interaction principles.’
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'In other words, it's a place where we try to reproduce stars in a laboratory - stars are the place where there is a high density of protons, neutrons and from this high density, there are collisions that are going to create heavier elements. So this is what we are trying to do now, we are trying to reproduce what happens in stars, in the laboratory.'
Dr. Faïçal Azaiez, Director at iThemba LABS, Laboratory for Accelerator-Based Sciences.
Read More7 SKIES # 6, N1 NEAR MATJiESFONTEIN, WESTERN CAPE
”…we know that have lost contact with the Earth, and that the Sun became invisible behind us. But just in this moment lieutenant Viljee’s observations proved that we are not at the height of Uranus - but that of Jupiter! Still at 140,000km but it is so big that we can observe it’s horizon, even the famous red circle on it’s surface. This means we are busy flying inwards into the solar system - in other words, back to the Earth.“
Series inspired by ‘Swart ster oor die Karoo’ (Black star over the Karoo) by Jan Rabie, 1957. Sci-fi Novel about a future human race that has to live in a solar system where the Sun has gone dark. Translated from Afrikaans to English.
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GOD, IZIKO MUSEUM, CAPE TOWN
This giraffe was at the entrance, in the first room of the (Chapter One) exhibition. Most visitors, especially children were spellbound and immediately attracted by it’s sheer size and magnificence. We started referring to it as ‘God’ after a while - soon realising that there is no competition or comparison to the presence of this tall, impressive yet comical creature.
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TELESCOPES, TELESCOPE SHOP, BRAKPAN, GAUTENG
‘When I was a young girl, we didn’t have telescopes. We had small binoculars mostly because it was after the world war. Today there are so many telescopes - and they are amazing. From this little size from where you could see the moon and the Planets to that big one over there where you can see literally everything.’ - Jess van Elferen, Shopkeeper, Telescope Shop, Brakpan, Gauteng.
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DANIE GOUWS # 2, (HELMHOLTZ COIL CALIBRATION SYSTEM), SANSA, HERMANUS
‘We’ve also built a coil like this under water before, where the field is changed to be like it would be in Northern America - then they can see changes in the sharks behaviour, so most definitely animals use magnetic fields for navigation. We’ve imported hundreds of these specific sensors, and we sell them to Denel, and they place them on some system that flies towards a target and goes kaboom at the end.
Danie Gouws, SANSA
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UNITED REFORMED CHURCH # 2, CARNARVON, NORTHERN CAPE
' With SKA ("Square Kilometre Array" project) they will look much deeper into space, if possible, perhaps 20.7 billion light-years into space which brings us to presumably the origins of the universe itself...'
Dr. Isak Potgieter, Pastor
AFRIKAANS TAALMONUMENT, PAARL, WESTERN CAPE
'"Ten . . . Nine . . . Eight . . . Seven . . . Six . . . Five . . . Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . One . . . Zero!"
The constant punch of thunder shakes the whole area. All eyes are focussed on the heavens or monitors that show images of the heavens. Inside them VR3 shrinks on top of an intense column of fire, first moving slowly, then faster, then unbelievably fast until it microscopically swims into the blue sea of heaven.'
'If man ventures out into space, he needs to be prepared to realise quite a few other things. That he was not the first intelligent being to do so and that he was not even the first child of Terra to leave his mother planet in this way. He'll learn to be humble. And further: That Terra is not the only planet in the heavens. That he can forget his allegiance to Terra. That he himself might change out in space, that he will never totally be and think the same as his fellow humans on Terra.'
From chapter 1 and chapter 11, Die Groen Planeet (The Green Planet), Jan Rabie, First edition, 1961. Translated from the original Afrikaans by Nic Grobler.
Photograph inspired by Die Groen Planeet, Jan Rabie, 1961.
OFENTSE LETEBELE, IZIKO PLANETARIUM PRESENTER, CAPE TOWN
Ofentse Letebele is part of the team working to translate some of the old Planetarium shows to the new Digital Dome system.
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FACE IN THE HOLE, SA NATIONAL SPACE AGENCY # 1, HERMANUS, WESTERN CAPE
A planetary poster is visible through an educational face in the hole display at the Space Science Centre in Hermanus - South Africa's national geomagnetic research facility.
South Africa maintains a scientific base in Antartica where it is ideal to study the Southern Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly - covering an area where communication systems are more exposed and vulnerable to damages and interruptions caused by high levels of radiation from space. Together with the geomagnetic and auroral observation research done on the Antarctic, Marion and Gough Islands, SANSA Space Science promotes interest in science through science advancement programmes.
SANSA(South African National Space Agency) Space Science emerged from the original Hermanus Magnetic Observatory that was first established in 1941.
Text adapted from www.sansa.org.za.