NASA Releases Images of Earth by Distant Spacecraft

The Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn sent back some pictures of Earth and Moon taken recently:

Pale blue dot



Earth and Moon



Close up



Earth on left, Moon on right

www.jpl.nasa.gov...

Awesome picture. Blends in with all the other shiny dots.

I wonder how many of those other shiny dots out there harbor such beauty as Earth does.

Saw these earlier, truly amazing how small we all are.

Shows you how fragile life on earth is, and how important it is we take care of our home and each other.

yep ..

and still can't get high res color pics from mars ..

awesome ..

reply to post by ionwind


To think that every living thing that ever lived (that we know about) came from that little dot.
Great pic

I thought these photos were not due out for a couple weeks so nice surprise and looking forward to seeing more. I could stare at this all night, just like the moon pics of earth. Really puts things into perspective that shows the vast scale of our world.

It's not often you stop and think wow! Great post OP. Just shows how small we really are.

Mods - Apologies for the long quote, but this bears repeating:

“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.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

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.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. 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 with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Beautiful pictures.

It brings a question to my mind though...

If Saturn is so big compared to earth,
then why doesn't Saturn appear bigger in the nights sky?

The tiny blue dot is still visible as a planet really from the pic,
and small compared to the size of Saturn.

Atmospheric interference?

reply to post by Saint Exupery



You are here-Pale blue dot, video!

My god do I suddenly feel very, very insignificant.

Beautiful pictures. S&F OP. Thanks for bringing these to us.

I wonder how many of those shiny little dots have been home to sentient beings who have been totally and completely infiltrated and subverted by a species which is alien to their world.


.....or are we the only ones?

reply to post by ionwind


Wow that is amazing. I do not remember seeing pictures that clear, and beautiful in a while. They are very peaceful to look at. I bet is would be a serene moment looking outside of a ship and really seeing that for the first time. Thank you for sharing.

reply to post by Saint Exupery


Can't quote such a biggy post, but the killing bit is never an urge in me. I don't want to kill anything, but by default that happens, the scale of that is incidental since I didn't want it to happen in the first place.

That photo really makes us look insignificant considering the vastness of space. Just think how many other specs of light out their can harbor life. It really boggles the mind.

Originally posted by Darkblade71
Beautiful pictures.

It brings a question to my mind though...

If Saturn is so big compared to earth,
then why doesn't Saturn appear bigger in the nights sky?

The tiny blue dot is still visible as a planet really from the pic,
and small compared to the size of Saturn.

Atmospheric interference?

The Earth is closer to the Sun and thus receives a lot more sunlight. More sunlight is reflected off the Earth so we seem brighter. Saturn is a long way off so it does not receive the same amount of light to be reflected.

P

Originally posted by Darkblade71
Beautiful pictures.

It brings a question to my mind though...

If Saturn is so big compared to earth,
then why doesn't Saturn appear bigger in the nights sky?

The tiny blue dot is still visible as a planet really from the pic,
and small compared to the size of Saturn.

Atmospheric interference?

Very good question!

Does it have something to do with our atmosphere, all of the pollution?

I think they're lying to us!!! LIES...IT'S ALL A BUNCH OF LIES!!!!!

reply to post by pheonix358


Thanks for that answer
It was a serious pondering that jumped out at me!

reply to post by playernumber13






lol!

Was just wondering really.
Sometimes the weirdest questions come to me, but I got to ask, or I will be left wondering for the rest of my life about some oddball question I wish I would of asked...

Looking like UFOs to me.
Perhaps they encounter the same electrical universe forces as UFOs.
Perhaps there are more EU details that have been removed from the
NASA Releases.

ED: I am wondering where all the galaxy stars went.