SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD FOR 2018

NASA CURIOSITY ROVER: In June this year, NASA’s Curiosity Rover, which has been wandering the surface of Mars since it was first deployed in 2012, discovered organic molecules in ancient rocks on the red planet. But what’s just as incredible as the discovery is the rover itself and that human beings have been driving a vehicle on another planet for the last six years. We may not have taken that one giant leap ourselves yet, but that we are now exploring other planets is beyond question. It wasn’t easy getting there. In order for the rover to reach Mars, NASA scientists had to perform one of the most daring manoeuvres in the history of space flight. After a journey of 300 million miles, approaching the atmosphere at some 8,000mph, the probe first deployed a supersonic parachute and heat shield, then performed a complicated sequence of rocket blasts before being finally lowered down on a sky crane. And it had to land in precisely the right place. It was like finding a needle in a haystack from the other side of the solar system. That we can build such machines is an engineering marvel. Thanks to those achievements, we may finally be one step closer to perhaps answering the question whether we are alone in the universe…

See it: Follow the Curiosity’s progress online at NASA’s mission website, which is constantly updated with news, photographs and more. mars.nasa.gov

REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK
California, USA: Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Redwood National Park in northern California is home to the tallest living organism on earth – Hyperion, a Great Redwood discovered in 2006, soars a staggering 379.7 feet into the sky. If it was a building, it would be more than 35 storeys tall. Great Redwoods such as these grow only in a narrow band of perfect elevation and climate in the far northern reaches of coastal California, where a cool, moist wind, blown in from the Pacific, keeps them permanently damp even during California’s notorious summer droughts. To see them first hand is a humbling experience: 2,000 years old, they regularly reach more than 300 feet in height, with fossil records dating back millions of years to the time of the dinosaurs – they are giants because they come from a land of giants. To stand beneath them, their thick red bark towering above like some colossal totem pole, is not just to be dwarfed by their size but by another era entirely. Why they grow so tall is still a mystery. Resistance to disease, insect damage and fire are all contributing factors. But in the end, the science is almost less important than the sensation of being among them. Like the stars at night, Redwoods are a reminder of how small we really are.

See it: Combine a trip to Redwood National Park with a visit to California’s other world wonder tree, the Giant Sequoia, the largest of which, General Sherman (a staggering 52,500 cubic feet – the largest tree by volume on the planet), is found in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, near Fresno. nps.gov/redw, nps.gov/seki