Wednesday 13 August 2014

The Pale Blue Dot.

I always like to re-visit this video, which puts things into perspective so gently and yet so powerfully. This photo of Earth shown in the video was taken by the Voyager 1 in 1990, from a distance of approx. 6 billion kms. Subsequent to completing its mission and leaving the solar system, the Voyager was made to turn around by NASA upon the request of the legendary astrophysicist Carl Sagan, to take this picture of Earth against the backdrop of the infinite vastness of space.

The audio is from Carl Sagan's book the 'Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space'.

"The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

You can read his full speech here-https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1816628-a-pale-blue-dot

Truly humbling-


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