A sobering picture... The 'Pale Blue Dot'.

[JIM]

The image of Earth below is courtesy of NASA and was taken by Voyager 1, 4 billion miles away!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I first saw this picture, my immediate reaction was something close to fear. I've spent many a sleepless night thinking about everything that this picture implies; about us, and how the petty things humanity is concerned with mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

 

 

 

The philosopher Carl Sagan says of this picture:

 

 

 

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

 

 

 

Any time I ever feel like giving up I look this quote up. It's such a powerful statement and deliciously apt.

 

 

 

Some say that this photograph trivialises humanity but, to me, this photograph represents the wonder that is the universe and the certainty that there is so much more to the mystery that we call life than what we see around us on a daily basis.

 

 

 

I just thought I'd put this out there for those who haven't seen [the picture] and see what you all think!

 

 

 

JiM :)

[ElkNight]

:shock:

 

Dang.

 

I can see my house from here.

[IGoddessI]

It's the full stop from the end of my sentence

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

Reminds me of how small our sun is to others.

 

 

 

http://www.alphadad.net/Previous%20Alph ... adkids.htm

 

 

 

scroll down the bottom and compare.

[3rkid]

That's quite an old picture witch means Voyager 1 is even farther out than it is when that was taken.

 

 

 

I wouldn't imagine even being able to see the tiny planet of Earth from that distance.

 

 

 

Still an amazing thought and image.

[Quoi_Tu]

My computer background, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field:

 

[Ren0gade]

whats crazy to me is that, thats only about 6 light hours away from earth. Still very cool picture :)

[Rebdragon]

I've always found this topic absurdely cliche.

 

 

 

Ya, the universe is big. What else is new?

[3rkid]

I've always found this topic absurdely cliche.

 

 

 

Ya, the universe is big. What else is new?

 

 

 

You mean the multiverse?

 

 

 

:lol:

[Riku3220]

http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

 

 

 

Just adding on.

[Lenticular_J]

Meh. Not really sobering. Kinda wierd. But, not like an actual person saw the Earth like that. When it comes to that, I may be in awe.

 

 

 

Pretty neat that a piece of Earth has been sent almost out of sight, though.

[tryto]

Carl Sagan...truly a great man. May he rest in peace.

 

 

 

"If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?"

[indy500fan]

My favourite space picture is the Ultra Deep Field, someone posted it above. This one is cool in that it shows the Earth isn't really all that much, but I don't think it takes it nearly far enough. We aren't a speck of dust, we are much less than that.

[Azvareth]

Here's the entire piece:

 

 

 

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

 

 

 

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

 

 

 

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

 

 

 

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor 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.

 

 

 

--Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994

 

 

 

And here's him reading it.

 

 

 

I've always really liked it.

[Faux]

Goes to show how worthless humanity is, doesn't it

[Alg]

So far from home...

[i_love_burritos]

Carl Sagan, is truly one of the great cosmologists of our time.

 

 

 

His book Cosmos, is in my opinion one of the best books ever written.

 

 

 

We truly are an insignificant spec of nothingness.

 

 

 

I place Sagan on par with Einstein and Feynman.

 

 

 

You guys should really read it.

 

 

 

Rebdragon, must you defile everything with your cynicism ?

[ThurinEthir]

I did a project on Carl Sagan in sixth grade, I got a C-. Woo.

 

I learned a bit more about him after that, and he really does sound like quite an amazing guy.

[Wizz]

Yay! We are a speck of nothingness!

[Giordano]

Truthfully this never sets me in awe. It makes me think for a few minutes, but then I'm back to normal, on Earth. ;)

 

 

 

Still, it is astonishing how big the world is; whether you like to think about it or not.

[Madmanpur3]

How awesome would it be if when we die we become a new spec in the universe? :D Sadly tho, that's not the case...we'll just die and go back to the nothingness we had before we were born. :cry:

[jemathonical]

Yes, the universe is big. Bring on all the arguments about infinity!

[thrash-boy]

one thing ive always wondered, our earth must be getting smaller.

 

our upper atmosphere is always leaking out into space, and we are sending out things which we will never get back.

 

there is only a finite amount of matter we are living on/in.

 

i know it will never happen in our time, but what if we run out of earth?

[assassin_696]

That video Azvareth linked to is one of my favourite's of all time. Carl Sagan was a truly gifted populariser of science.

 

 

 

one thing ive always wondered, our earth must be getting smaller.

 

our upper atmosphere is always leaking out into space, and we are sending out things which we will never get back.

 

there is only a finite amount of matter we are living on/in.

 

i know it will never happen in our time, but what if we run out of earth?

 

 

 

The amount of matter we've sent up is a tiny fraction of the Earth's total mass. For perspective, the Sun loses 4 million tonnes of mass every second, which seems like a lot but the mass of the sun is so large this isn't significant. Plus we're showered with infalling cosmic debris every day, which will add to the mass, but I'm not sure by how much.

[justin_m23]

This might sound dumb, but all my problems seemed to disappear for a moment after I realised what that photograph was. Perspective is a powerful thing.

[dsavi]

To be honest I don't get the big deal. If you've ever looked at the stars for a long time, you'll notice that in order for such huge things to look small, they have to be far away. Really freaking far away. Why should the earth be exempt? If you go far enough, as Voyagers I and II did, earth will be no more visible than the stars are to us.