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.
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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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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’And then we have Betelgeuse, that's a very important star. It's in the Orion constellation and some scientists to say it's already gone supernova. Some say it still has to. As astronomy is a science, it's still being looked at and studied, so we always say nothing is fact until it is proven. Why? Because man hasn't been in space - we cannot get there. We cannot really study the stars. We don't know anything until we actually have the facts - we do by mathematics and other subjects study space and the universe, but all of it is theoretical until we can prove it's fact.’
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'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.
'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.
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"Follow me," said Eva Stellaris quietly, and stepped forward, through the milky wall. "Goodness me!” whispered Jos. "It's going to open just like intelligent glue!"
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. There are no doors, but mirror like walls that you can walk through - but only if you are calm. Wouter ended up forgetting this and ran angrily towards someone, straight into the wall like you would run into a closed glass door, coming face to face with himself.
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‘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.’
The meteorite was probably about the size of a 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.
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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.
‘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
Read MoreThe 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.
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In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land-living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus Mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
In 2011 the deepest land living creature was discovered inside a South African gold mine. A new species of nematode worm Halicephalobus mephisto was found 3.5km below the surface. They thrive in conditions thought to be too harsh for any creature - where previously it was thought that only single-celled bacteria survive.
The discovery has also encouraged the search for life on other planets with the possibility of more creatures surviving underground.
Quagga were all wiped out by pioneer hunters in Southern Africa during the 19th century. They were a subspecies of Zebra basically similar in appearance, with wider stripes that disappear towards the back of their bodies. In 1987 a programme started to try and resurrect the Quagga using selective breeding. Those found on the grounds of the iThemba Lab (the largest facility of Africa for particle and nuclear research) is part of this ongoing programme.
Quagga were all wiped out by pioneer hunters in South Africa in the 19th century. They were a subspecies of Zebra basically with a similar appearance, but their stripes become wider and disappear towards the back where it is also more of a brown colour. In 1987 a programme started to try and resurrect the Quagga using selective breeding. The only known photograph of a living one was taken by F.York at a London zoo in 1870.
The Zebra found on the grounds of the iThemba Lab (the largest facility of Africa for particle and nuclear research) is part of an ongoing programme to reintroduce the Quagga.
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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.
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'So once the particle reach their maximum energy, then, they get extracted again, and get sent down to wherever we want them to go, for experiments or isotope production.'
Dr Ricky Smit is showing a schematic representation of the principle of acceleration of the charged particle through the Separated Section Cyclotron (SSC) at iThemba LABS.
'So once the particle reach their maximum energy, then, they get extracted again, and get sent down to wherever we want them to go, for experiments or isotope production.'
Dr Ricky Smit is showing a schematic representation of the principle of acceleration of the charged particle through the Separated Section Cyclotron (SSC) at iThemba LABS.
Salpeterkop (Saltpetre Hill) was an active surface volcano about 66 million years ago – believed to be the last one in South Africa, making it the youngest known active volcano in Africa south of the Equator. When viewing this structure today, it must be remembered that about 2 km of rock has been eroded away, so we are looking at a level deep in the throat of the volcano. Its present summit is reached via a kilometre-wide lava ash field.*
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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.
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