The Pale Blue Dot

Jul 25, 2017 10:06 AM

whosgotamatch76

Views

197456

Likes

3653

Dislikes

86

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.

I like how he says "every corrupt politician" as if there were any other type of politician.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

This was taken 1 year, 6 months, & 8 days before I was born.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

thanks. you have ruined my todays plan of being nasty to everyone

8 years ago | Likes 76 Dislikes 2

Or all the more reason to?

8 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 9

Be excellent to each other.

8 years ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 1

Be nice to each other, goddamnit!

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Still, look how brightly we shine. Earth is beautiful and I personally don't care much for the emptiness of space.

8 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

We are a leaf on the wind, watch how we

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

size of ops mom

8 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

And yet, when I manage to make a complete stranger smile, I feel enormous and worthwhile.

8 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

That's what it is all about.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I am whelmed by this.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

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

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

incredible. all this fighting. for nothing. We have been 'one' the whole time, and each other is all we have.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

This is honestly one of the sweetest posts on here, even if it is just c&p of a speech. Good job, OP.

8 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Always upvote Carl Sagan.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

The current ping to Voyager 1 is around 38 h 26 m 30 s.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

"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

8 years ago | Likes 20 Dislikes 0

that we were, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment." Harlan Ellison.

8 years ago | Likes 17 Dislikes 0

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

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives."

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I love this shit.

8 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

Now let's do a silly pose pic!

8 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 1

http://htwins.net/scale2/

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

this is very nice, thank you

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

So, basically, what we do is all in vain.

8 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Google 17776 and click on the first link you will not be disappointed.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

Waterville, Pennsylvania 17776, United States of America. I am quite disappointed.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Fuck, I'm blinking in the photo.

8 years ago | Likes 50 Dislikes 1

lol classic

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

ok everyone, that's a reset

8 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

I was only a few months old so a good chance I was sleeping through it.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

At least your not naked in it.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Contact Voyager, we'll have to take the photo again.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Do you think we'll ever get to meet the satellites who escaped our solar system one day?

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

V'ger

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

One day they will come back to save the whales.

8 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

I'm naked on the pic

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Once of my all time fav videos on it https://youtu.be/2pfwY2TNehw

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Nice! Mogwai!

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Such a great song!

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

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.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Totally agreed. "Like it or not, the earth is where we make our stand." Every child needs to understand this.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

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.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Can you see me waving?

8 years ago | Likes 219 Dislikes 3

Hey man! See that guy over there?

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Mooning?

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

No but you can see the wall of china

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

*squints*

8 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

How about now!?

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

8 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

*wanking

8 years ago | Likes 94 Dislikes 0

*wanks back

8 years ago | Likes 47 Dislikes 0

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Why were you naked?

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

They see me rollin...

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

*waves back

8 years ago | Likes 30 Dislikes 0

Uh, no. Do it again.

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Are you fat enough to be seen from outer space?

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

*old enough to have been around?

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Your momma's so fat she took up an entire pixel when Voyager 1 took a photo in 1990.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Nah, but I see your mum.

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

*enhance*

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH7ZRF6zNoc

8 years ago | Likes 13 Dislikes 0

Go to the drop down menu, click images, select this image, select "view and edit" add this link through there, profit.

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Are we double dipping?

8 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 2

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.

8 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 1

Doesn't matter. With Pale Blue Dot, take as many upvotes as I can give out.

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

You could have edited it into your post

8 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 2

nope, dunno how to. sry. feel free to downvote

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

The edit post button

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 3

How do we receive signals from that far away?

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

At the speed of light

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Not much different than any other satellite. Very slow, very faint, but we're still well within range of Voyager 1 and 2.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

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

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Slightly better version of the photo:

8 years ago | Likes 490 Dislikes 1

So much nothingness

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

even better version: https://imgur.com/o1e9atI

8 years ago | Likes 21 Dislikes 0

Actually, I think that's way better.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I was trying to be modest...

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

v

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

You could use that as a wallpaper, or better, repost it as 'cool picture of earth'

8 years ago | Likes 61 Dislikes 0

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

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Or 'speck of dust in a sunbeam'.

8 years ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 0

"Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977"

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

For a second I thought you removed earth and I was like "ya it is better that way"

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

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

8 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

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...

8 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

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.

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Finally really relevant: .

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Could someone please explain to me the rays of light? It's almost like they went through an intergalactic prism.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

It's only part of a larger photo of the sun: https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00450

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

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.

8 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I don't see it. Could you perhaps put a circle around it or some arrows

8 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 1

Right there /a/fcln8

8 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 0

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.

8 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

How's this? /a/nzWha

8 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

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?

8 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Carl Sagan, gone too soon.

8 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

Sagan, via his "Cosmos" pretty much single-handedly got me interested in science.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

watch cosmos the journey continues by neil degrasse tyson.

8 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

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.

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

he is still a big inspiration to a lot of people. and he was inspired by sagan to go into astrophysics

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I do respect his outreach efforts.

8 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0