This is a Special Edition recorded an hour after the announcement of the death of legendaryBritish astronomer and Broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore at the age of 89 - We have lost a great Britishcharacter and our greatest champion of space research. R.I.P in the stars...
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| Hello, it's Howard Hughes in London on a very sad day. | |
| Today, we learned that Sir Patrick Moore, a man known to pretty much everybody in the United Kingdom and many people around the world, as a fabulous broadcaster and astronomer, has died at the age of 89 at his home in Selsey in Sussex, the place that he loved. | |
| Over the years, not only for The Unexplained, but for many other radio shows and news bulletins, I spoke with him and interviewed him many, many times, and I came to know him as a very warm, highly interesting, amusing, and quintessentially British individual. | |
| I am very saddened that this man has left us, but he leaves us with a lot of knowledge and a lot of understanding. | |
| When America had the great Walter Cronkite to guide it through the Apollo moon missions, we had Sir Patrick Moore on television here. | |
| And I will always remember being glued to the television screen during my school holidays as a little boy, watching and listening. | |
| He sparked my interest in space, and I will always be grateful to him. | |
| I thought on this occasion I would just let you hear an interview that I did with him, one of a number that I did with him, in 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of his iconic British television show, The Sky at Night. | |
| Here's that interview. | |
| It hasn't changed very much, oddly enough. | |
| The Vegan is not the same shape and format as it was 50 years ago. | |
| Of course, the whole of science is different. | |
| Don't forget, we began before the space age started. | |
| And things like quasars, pulsars, black holes were unknown. | |
| So there's been so much to cover. | |
| And what I've tried to do over the years is to bring Astronomia down to the level where everyone can understand it, an introduced astronomy. | |
| And I hope we succeeded. | |
| It is a great pleasure now to go around and find well-known amateur astronomers and well-known professionals who began by watching the sky at night or soon. | |
| I know the British astronomer Heather Cooper quite well have over the years, and I know that she cites you among her personal hall of fame. | |
| A long time ago. | |
| I feel quite honored today because we've got our 50th anniversary party down here, and I think almost all the top astronomers of the country are coming. | |
| And I feel very honored indeed. | |
| I heard on the radio, I think in America last week, that they're very excited there that moisture or the elements of water have been found or are believed to be in many places in our solar system, which, of course, gives us the possibility of life. | |
| What do you think about that? | |
| I think the key may be the planet Mars. | |
| After all, Mars is less unlike the Earth than any other planet. | |
| And after all, if we find any trace of life there, it'll show that life will appear where it can. | |
| Of course, no Martians ever fear. | |
| But if there's any trace of life at all, it'll show that life will appear where conditions are favourable. | |
| And that will give a key that life is widespread over the universe. | |
| And what do you think of those people, and I've interviewed over the years some of those people who claim that there are structures on Mars and there has been or maybe is a civilization? | |
| They're great sons. | |
| You always get the cranks, you know. | |
| You will always get them. | |
| For me, and I wonder if for you the greatest question in all of this as we stand here on the Earth, whether we use a telescope or a radio telescope or just our eyes, is to stare out and wonder if what we're seeing really is infinity. | |
| Do you believe it is infinite? | |
| You can't describe infinity in ordinary words. | |
| Something goes on forever? | |
| No, we can't do it. | |
| You cannot put it into plain English. | |
| And neither could Einstein. | |
| I know, because I asked him. | |
| And what did he say? | |
| What were the words that he used? | |
| This is we cannot tell. | |
| That's what he actually said. | |
| So if Einstein can't do it, I certainly can't. | |
| Isn't that wonderful that you spoke to Einstein? | |
| As you look back over the 50 years and you look at the way things are now, do you ever consider retiring from this? | |
| I'll go when I do the first bad program that I think is my fault. | |
| See, I'll go on as long as people want me, as long as I feel that I'm doing it decently. | |
| But I see the first bad program I do will also be my last. | |
| So we'll wait and see. | |
| There is a man in America who I'm sure you know called Seth Szostak, who is behind an organization called SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. | |
| I mean, they're very enthusiastic that one of these days they are going to get a signal from somewhere that indicates we are not alone. | |
| Well, why not? | |
| Well, look at it this way. | |
| There are 100,000 million stars in our galaxy, and we know of 1,000 million galaxies, and that's the only part. | |
| Therefore, the total number of stars is immense, and many of these have planets. | |
| There must be vast numbers of worlds where life could exist. | |
| I said just now about Mars. | |
| The point is, if life can appear, will it? | |
| If it occurs on Mars as well as here, that will answer the question. | |
| Do you think it may be intelligent life? | |
| On Mars, no. | |
| In the universe, I'm sure. | |
| Afterwards they will ask well our Earth as well as so many things. | |
| Why should we be the only intelligent creatures? |