The Farthest

With The Farthest, documentarian Emer Reynolds provides ample evidence that Voyager remains the most audacious project in human history, and one of humankind’s greatest successes. Through a rhapsodic collection of interviews, animations, photographs, and never-before-seen archival footage, she recreates the forty-five years it took the spacecraft to reach its current point in space, and the secrets it uncovered along the way. The enthusiastic men and women who built Voyager and nurtured it along its twelve-billion-mile flight (and counting) complete the film with fascinating behind-the-scenes stories. The Farthest is a joyful celebration of a golden age of American curiosity, exploration, and the will to look up at the sky and ask, “Why not?”

TALK The expedition of both Voyagers was fueled by curiosity and a hunger for answers to big questions. Nowadays, many questions about our universe are still unanswered. And they’re still the motivation for astronomers to do their research and explore space. Inspired by The Farthest, we invite young enthusiastic scientists to share which big question they hope humanity will find the answer to in their lifetime.

Astrophysicist Hyerin Jang studies the formation of planets at the Radboud University. Antonio Vecchio is astrophysicist at the Radboud Radio Lab and was part of the team that built a radio antenna that is now gathering data at the backside of the moon. Which big questions inspire them? And which questions keep you, the audience, up at night?