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Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40.5 AU), as part of the Family Portrait series of images of the Solar System.
In the photograph, Earth's apparent size is less than a pixel; the planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight scattered by the camera's optics.
Voyager 1, which had completed its primary mission and was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and take one last photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space, at the request of astronomer and author Carl Sagan.
During a public lecture at Cornell University in 1994, Carl Sagan presented the image to the audience and shared his reflections on the deeper meaning behind the idea of the Pale Blue Dot:
„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.
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 in 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 the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. 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. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, 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 and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Personal_Voyage (Sagan's "watershed moment for science-themed television programming")
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Spacetime_Odyssey (2014 sequel with Neil deGrasse Tyson)
To me, this is one of the greatest results science can have to us as a species; we are not even a whole pixel in the vastness that makes up the world as we know it, and the insignificance of everything we achieved can't be shown better.
Go out there and be nice. It's all we have. In a million years, not one of us will be remembered, so just go out there and love one another.
rxpx40
I like how he says "every corrupt politician" as if there were any other type of politician.
justahumanonline
This was taken 1 year, 6 months, & 8 days before I was born.
docneel
thanks. you have ruined my todays plan of being nasty to everyone
LaserTurboWolf
Or all the more reason to?
betterave
Be excellent to each other.
dontforgetyourtowel42
Be nice to each other, goddamnit!
ToastedVanilla
Still, look how brightly we shine. Earth is beautiful and I personally don't care much for the emptiness of space.
HelloToe
We are a leaf on the wind, watch how we
stew1
size of ops mom
Porecomesis
And yet, when I manage to make a complete stranger smile, I feel enormous and worthwhile.
toddscat
That's what it is all about.
CheeseborgarSoop
I am whelmed by this.
SonderingStrike
A fallacy, surely, we do not think we are special because we are the universe, but rather because no other known creature has done what wedo
HeyWaze
incredible. all this fighting. for nothing. We have been 'one' the whole time, and each other is all we have.
spaciings
This is honestly one of the sweetest posts on here, even if it is just c&p of a speech. Good job, OP.
hereforthefunnies
Always upvote Carl Sagan.
RepostFromLastWeek
The current ping to Voyager 1 is around 38 h 26 m 30 s.
CidColetti
"Like a wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all 1/2
CidColetti
that we were, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment." Harlan Ellison.
sciencebasedlifeform
Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face And stars fill my dream I'm a traveler of both time and space To be where I have been
merelyadequategooglymoogly
"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives."
GamesDeen
I love this shit.
EarlGreyCreamNoSugar
Now let's do a silly pose pic!
Workid
http://htwins.net/scale2/
whosgotamatch76
this is very nice, thank you
AdamGenesis
So, basically, what we do is all in vain.
Thecringewhostolechristmas
Google 17776 and click on the first link you will not be disappointed.
kumisz
Waterville, Pennsylvania 17776, United States of America. I am quite disappointed.
JohnnieTheShrubber
Fuck, I'm blinking in the photo.
MaSu10
lol classic
prattleassassin
ok everyone, that's a reset
superkingthebestoneofthethree
I was only a few months old so a good chance I was sleeping through it.
HighSlayerRalton
At least your not naked in it.
mkyner
Contact Voyager, we'll have to take the photo again.
PeePeeFrictionPleasure
Do you think we'll ever get to meet the satellites who escaped our solar system one day?
ZiomalZParafii
V'ger
toddscat
One day they will come back to save the whales.
pleasenononoyes
I'm naked on the pic
TequilaSquared
IFuckingLoveGoldenRetrievers
Once of my all time fav videos on it https://youtu.be/2pfwY2TNehw
whosgotamatch76
Nice! Mogwai!
IFuckingLoveGoldenRetrievers
Such a great song!
datpo
The song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6wJiweByng
ZiomalZParafii
One of the most important things I've ever read. I come back from time to time, sharing among my friends. It should be mandatory at schools.
whosgotamatch76
Totally agreed. "Like it or not, the earth is where we make our stand." Every child needs to understand this.
ZiomalZParafii
I've heard this dozens of time but each time it gives me a massive goosebumps on the whole body. Damn, we need more Carls Sagans.
MaxximumB
Can you see me waving?
PuppyDontCare
Hey man! See that guy over there?
Magicflutefreddie
Mooning?
MattDerKomponist
No but you can see the wall of china
CallMeJerryBecauseIAmJerry
*squints*
Henders89
How about now!?
hansolongdingdongtralala
Zokathra
*wanking
thk5013
*wanks back
TinaTinaBoBina
MrRandom314159
Why were you naked?
Whhpssh
They see me rollin...
whosgotamatch76
*waves back
degenerator
Uh, no. Do it again.
Moghul
Are you fat enough to be seen from outer space?
Mavgurian
*old enough to have been around?
checkmate227
Your momma's so fat she took up an entire pixel when Voyager 1 took a photo in 1990.
VirtueOfHumility
Nah, but I see your mum.
Vreee
*enhance*
whosgotamatch76
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH7ZRF6zNoc
doomladen
Go to the drop down menu, click images, select this image, select "view and edit" add this link through there, profit.
stormegedendarklordofall
Are we double dipping?
whosgotamatch76
Hmmm, I see where you come from. But I forgot this link, and I thought it might be cool for some to see and hear it, too.
PerhapsAnotherPerspective
Doesn't matter. With Pale Blue Dot, take as many upvotes as I can give out.
stormegedendarklordofall
You could have edited it into your post
whosgotamatch76
nope, dunno how to. sry. feel free to downvote
stormegedendarklordofall
The edit post button
sj2890
How do we receive signals from that far away?
Peendidiler
At the speed of light
serenityfast
Not much different than any other satellite. Very slow, very faint, but we're still well within range of Voyager 1 and 2.
doomladen
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/weekly-reports/
serenityfast
If I recall correctly we'd be able to communicate with Voyager 1&2 for at least 50 more years, but their RTG power will drop out before 2025
TheGhostofElizabethShue
Slightly better version of the photo:
StraightOuttaUsersub
So much nothingness
LithiumGrease
even better version: https://imgur.com/o1e9atI
MattDerKomponist
Actually, I think that's way better.
TheGhostofElizabethShue
I was trying to be modest...
SpaceCthulhu
ThePortugeeseInquisition
You could use that as a wallpaper, or better, repost it as 'cool picture of earth'
ekrumme
I tried having a print of this done to hang on my wall but the darks were really overpowering and I was disappointed with the result
TheGhostofElizabethShue
Or 'speck of dust in a sunbeam'.
TongueTiedLabourerfromtheLandoftheLittlePeople
"Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977"
13390f1393nds
For a second I thought you removed earth and I was like "ya it is better that way"
HelloToe
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/images/galleries/Pale_Blue_Dot1.jpg
TheGhostofElizabethShue
Similarly this has been altered. As far as I know above is the actual image. Frustratingly small, but thats 40 year old space probes for you
HelloToe
Think it's mainly just contrast and flipped around ('up' loses meaning in space :D). If it's good enough for NASA to publish it...
TheGhostofElizabethShue
Yeah but I kinda think an image taken by mankind's most distant object shouldn't be tinkered with, you know? It's max interesting as-is.
aarhusianer
Finally really relevant: .
Schex44
Could someone please explain to me the rays of light? It's almost like they went through an intergalactic prism.
Peepula
It's only part of a larger photo of the sun: https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00450
JamesEarlJones
It's a reflection in the camera lens that was used to take the photo. You know when you take pics and there's glare from the sun? It's that.
Schex44
PolarHailStorm
I don't see it. Could you perhaps put a circle around it or some arrows
HrdWodFlor
Right there /a/fcln8
PolarHailStorm
Hey, I don't mean to be a jerk but I still can't see it. Any chance you can zoom in a bit or bring the colour up? It's grainy.
HrdWodFlor
How's this? /a/nzWha
PolarHailStorm
I'm still getting nothing. You know, I'm starting to think people don't see it but are just going along with it. Are those arrows right?
SeaTurtleSailingThroughSpace
Carl Sagan, gone too soon.
merelyadequategooglymoogly
Sagan, via his "Cosmos" pretty much single-handedly got me interested in science.
miyamotorola
watch cosmos the journey continues by neil degrasse tyson.
merelyadequategooglymoogly
I tried. Didn't get very far. He seems to be popular around here, so I won't trash him, but I will say that he is no Carl Sagan.
miyamotorola
he is still a big inspiration to a lot of people. and he was inspired by sagan to go into astrophysics
merelyadequategooglymoogly
I do respect his outreach efforts.