On the fervent request of Carl Sagan, the iconic astronomer, finally in 1990 the Voyager 1 cameras were turned around to face its mother planet Earth. This last service, some 13 years from launch and after 6 billion kilometres of lonely travel. Mans most unique servant was about to provide perspective to its master. More than 27 years ago, the Voyager 1, took 60 frames which were merged into what today is known as the Pale Blue Dot. A picture of our planet and home from way out there, showing us our reality. The picture is so small that one is not able to download it sufficiently for a proper view. It has become the most poignant photograph in history and there is no better explanation of its importance, then from Sagan himself, the originator of the idea.
“Consider again 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 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.
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.”
Once seen, one can never forget the Pale Blue Dot and the words of Sagan make the reality even more stark. Our feet on the ground, we should never be arrogant in this tiny circus of our existence. We have no reason to be.
*picture is from Wikipedia.
*picture is from Wikipedia.
