[karl 12]

Heres a great short film featuring Carl Sagan discussing NASA's famous pale blue dot photograph of the earth (music by Pink Floyd too )
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=c7xj8xikyD8

[karl 12]

Photograph of planet Earth taken by Voyager 1 which was 4 billion miles away.



Carl Sagan,who campaigned for the spacraft's camera to be turned around 180 degrees so that the photograph could be taken,said:

Quote

"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

Also:

Quote

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.

[The Silver Thong]

Pretty cool and from 4 million miles away wow pretty impresive for back then.

[applegrove]

Carl Sagon has made large concepts understandable to everyday people and for that alone his contribution to humanity is huge.

For some reason looking at that little blue dot and knowing that I am on it and it is huge to me, makes me excited about death, I can't wait to see the BIG picture.

[karl 12]

The Silver Thong on Feb 17 2009, 07:13 PM, said:

Pretty cool and from 4 million miles away wow pretty impresive for back then.

Damn fine photograph and what Carl Sagan had to say about the image rings very true - especialy these days with all the squabbling going on between various organised religions and political/nationalist ideologies.
(it was 4 billion miles though )

[Dr Alien]

its barely a pixel... although.... it would make a very good game. £100 to the first person who can find earth in that picture

any ideas what them stripes of light are? or is it just the camera?

This post has been edited by dr alien: 17 February 2009 - 07:41 PM

[The Silver Thong]

karl 12 on Feb 17 2009, 12:20 PM, said:

Damn fine photograph and what Carl Sagan had to say about the image rings very true - especialy these days with all the squabbling going on between various organised religions and political/nationalist ideologies.
(it was 4 billion miles though )

Ya the pic alone makes me feel pretty small than Sagan goes on to make me feel even smaller LOL not less important just smaller damn it's a big universe out there.

[johnk81]

This is a brilliant picture , puts it all in perspective , it was looking on us as we look on the stars - its great!

ME

[thefinalfrontier]

karl 12 on Feb 17 2009, 02:20 PM, said:

Damn fine photograph and what Carl Sagan had to say about the image rings very true - especialy these days with all the squabbling going on between various organised religions and political/nationalist ideologies.
(it was 4 billion miles though )

That is a super photograph Karl,, And think about it this way, Its only 4 billion miles, A light year is roughly 6 trillion miles so that 4 billion miles is just a trip to town,,

[validator]

applegrove on Feb 17 2009, 11:17 AM, said:

....makes me excited about death, I can't wait to see the BIG picture.

I've got bad news, pal. You won't see a bloody thing after death BECAUSE YOU'LL HAVE NO EYES, Duhhhhhh...

[DONTEATUS]

validator with eyes wide open even in our passing we shall return to what the Great Dr.Segan said."Start Stuff" the basic elements in the cosmos.We are the Universe all wraped into a great little learning device,organically produced to be re-cycled into what awaits us.ANd the best news is that nobody knows what that is! But that it In fact is is the Star Stuff its self. We are but just childern in the vastness of a endless circle of elements that Do come together right now and forever.

[karl 12]

DONTEATUS on Feb 17 2009, 11:06 PM, said:

We are the Universe all wrapped into a great little learning device,organically produced to be re-cycled into what awaits us.

Indeedy -always found the similarities in these two photographs interesting:

[applegrove]

karl 12 on Feb 17 2009, 06:12 PM, said:

Indeedy -always found the similarities in these two photographs interesting:

Those pics. are so cool.

I aways thought that an atom with the nutrons revolving looks like a planet, or solar system.

[cpjason]

I found these on another forum earlier and am glad to see them here too, as I found it quite interesting. I know many people who have gone their entire lives without ever thinking about how insignificant we really are. Carl Sagan was a visionary.


Here is a different one that is very similar.....click

This post has been edited by cpjason: 18 February 2009 - 06:22 AM

[DONTEATUS]

We should all watch the Cosmos series again Its still very moveing Our young childern should be ask to watch also. I remember it well :Billions,And Billions" words to live by. 1955 by the way was a great year to match the post number I have reached? Now If I could erase most of that garble.LoL