25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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Ahso!
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

Post by Ahso! »

I first learned of the Pale Blue Dot about 13 years ago while on Ubuntu Forums when the internet was still quite new to me. Those years were fascinating because it was then that I was experiencing the newness of the vast amount of knowledge and information I now had access to. The information was often very overwhelming to me; I would be introduced to some people I would come to admire and respect. So The Pale Blue Dot holds some personal significance; it's one of many markers along my journey.

Thank you to those who make space exploration a possibility, but especially to Carl Sagan as well as to all those people back then and now that I've come to know along the way.

JPL | News | 'Pale Blue Dot' Images Turn 25

Valentine's Day is special for NASA's Voyager mission. It was on Feb. 14, 1990, that the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back at our solar system and snapped the first-ever pictures of the planets from its perch at that time beyond Neptune.

This "family portrait" captures Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Earth and Venus from Voyager 1's unique vantage point. A few key members did not make it in: Mars had little sunlight, Mercury was too close to the sun, and dwarf planet Pluto turned out too dim.

Taking these images was not part of the original plan, but the late Carl Sagan, a member of the Voyager imaging team at the time, had the idea of pointing the spacecraft back toward its home for a last look. The title of his 1994 book, "Pale Blue Dot," refers to the image of Earth in this series. Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan | Awakin.org

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.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

Voltaire



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AnneBoleyn
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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Miss Carl Sagan, gone too soon.
Ahso!
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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Another perspective. This one in comparison to Saturn. The arrow points to planet Earth.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

Voltaire



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AnneBoleyn
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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Isn't that beautiful. Once, I saw Saturn through a telescope. Though very small, the image was crystal clear. I shall not forget that sight, ever. It will always be with me.
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FourPart
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

Post by FourPart »

It doesn't look like a photo to me, rather than some sort of airbrushed computer graphic. The rings seen against the background of the planet don't match the other orbiting rings. Presumably, the bright speck of light on the bottom left horizon is the Sun, yet everything from this side seems well illuminated.
Ahso!
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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FourPart;1474126 wrote: It doesn't look like a photo to me, rather than some sort of airbrushed computer graphic. The rings seen against the background of the planet don't match the other orbiting rings. Presumably, the bright speck of light on the bottom left horizon is the Sun, yet everything from this side seems well illuminated.I believe Saturn is composed of mostly gas and liquid which might account for the strange appearance.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,”

Voltaire



I have only one thing to do and that's

Be the wave that I am and then

Sink back into the ocean

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Smaug
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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I was having a gander at various space images, when I found this beautiful and informative CGI 'movie' from NASA. It's a touch long, but worth a watch, especially when compared to most of the piffle on the telly!

:-6

" To finish first, first you have to finish!" Rick Mears. 4x Winner Indy 500. 3x Indycar National Champion.
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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I would really love to have heard his commentary on the recent fly-by of Pluto.
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Smaug
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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LarsMac;1486861 wrote: I would really love to have heard his commentary on the recent fly-by of Pluto.


Me too;I'm sure it would have been both interesting and informative.
" To finish first, first you have to finish!" Rick Mears. 4x Winner Indy 500. 3x Indycar National Champion.
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Snowfire
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25th Anniversary of Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot Image

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LarsMac;1486861 wrote: I would really love to have heard his commentary on the recent fly-by of Pluto.


Carl Sagan had a wonderful speaking voice. I drew you in.

I first became aware of him when he did his documentary series Cosmos in 1980. I then bought the book of the series.
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."

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