As I begin to understand the degree of information that is being uncovered through ocean drilling and the immense amount of information left to discover, I’m reminded of our inherent drive to explore space and the parallels between these two disciplines. 

Carl Sagan once said that there are as many stars in the galaxy as there are grains of sand in the world.  We have no pictures of our galaxy because its like trying to take a picture of our house without being able to leave our bedroom.  The vast unknowns of space science have fascinated every culture on the planet for centuries, but we must not forget that there is so much left to explore and uncover right here on Earth.  Through ocean drilling, we are able to extract tiny glimpses of the past.  Each core sample is like one piece of a giant gig saw puzzle, and though we’ve learned so much, we are still missing most of our pieces.  We are trying to build images pixel by pixel and each image is just one frame in a movie that tells the story of our planet.  So not only are there as many stars in the galaxy as there are grains of sand the world…but there are as many grains of sand as there are stars in our galaxy!  What an opportunity for continued exploration and discovery!

Jill