Our Little Blue Dot.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a6c03395b67d.jpg[/atsimg]
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.
Carl Sagan

Most have already heard this beautiful poem from Mr. Sagan, I know I have, yet somehow with all the controversy, all the talk of war, all the fear, all the political partisanship, all the racism that we hear or read about everyday, all this has made this poem have more of an impact on me.

I look at that dot, and as i read those words, i think of all I have done, and all that's being done, and i realize, even tho its overwhelming, its still basically non existent to the rest of the universe, which to me, is very humbling, and a little comforting.

We're only as significant as we make ourselves out to be, on this little blue dot.



[edit on 9/20/2009 by Alaskan Man]

Absolutely beautiful.

Just a simple little dot......


Thanks.

Oh how insignificant we are!

We truly are a dot in the universe and its good to be reminded of this.

That's so amazingly humbling....

Sagan's poem really puts the human race in its place.

Tread lightly dear friends, tread lightly..!

Thanks dude, it's awesome.

Peace!

I love that pic, thanks for posting it.

This still has to be my favourite way of seeing the pale blue dot, by way of the video on Youtube entitled, Carl Sagan - Pale blue dot: On the turning away. For some reason i can't embed it here, it's not playing ball tonight.

Such a beautiful song to compliment a stunning look at our tiny world.

CX.



[edit on 20/9/09 by CX]

Nice post OP.

It is very humbling to see what we really are in the big picture.

Its posts like this one that we on ATS are privilaged to be educated by and see the sheer size of everything. It also points out to me people who surround me that live life in their own ego world.

They will never see the beauty and fear that this picture creates!!

I have from a young age been told to "Always think outside the box" after seeing this picture it should be a very easy thing to do!!

Many like to look at this picture as proof of our insignificance. They say that there must be millions of other life containing worlds out there.

I like to think that the universe must be this large in order to create even one planet capable of supporting life. After all, we all came from the stars...billion year old element cookers.

You should check this video


Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot

The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by Voyager 1 from a record distance, showing it against the vastness of space. The idea for taking the distant photo and the title came from scientist and astronomer Carl Sagan, who also wrote the 1994 book of the same name.

[edit on 20/9/09 by blackcube]

Originally posted by Alaskan Man
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a6c03395b67d.jpg[/atsimg]
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.
Carl Sagan

Cont..


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.

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. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the only home we’ve ever known, the pale blue dot”

Originally posted by Longtimegone
Many like to look at this picture as proof of our insignificance. They say that there must be millions of other life containing worlds out there.

I like to think that the universe must be this large in order to create even one planet capable of supporting life. After all, we all came from the stars...billion year old element cookers.

-hadn't read Sagan poems, thanks for sharing OP

I know we are just a dot- and we could look on that as insignificance but I think we are amazing at the same time- we are amazingly insignificant?

Originally posted by Longtimegone
Many like to look at this picture as proof of our insignificance.

Interstingly enough, Carl Sagan also had a quote on this aspect of things:

"What saves us from insignificance is the courgae of our questions and the depth of their answers."

True, true indeed.

Alot of the early astronauts say that seeing the earth from the outside was almost like a religious event or conversion for them, realizing how precious and small the earth is, and how silly our wars and hatreds are.

[edit on 9/20/09 by silent thunder]

I know we are just a dot- and we could look on that as insignificance but I think we are amazing at the same time- we are amazingly insignificant?

Yeah agreed, Thats a very good point!

really puts things in perspective...............if this is teh first time you have ever thought aobut teh size of the universe.

Don't give up! I believe in you all.
A person's a person, no matter how small!

Compared to the universe actually we are ever smaller than a dot.

Also insignificant but strange how this made front page so fast, while my thread, 195 replies and 14 flags never made it, oh well.

[edit on 20-9-2009 by Chovy]

Yes, we are not even an atom in comparison to the cosmos. And people think this microscopic speck of dust in a sunbeam has a creator worrying about it and the film of muck that lives on it's surface. Pretty funny.

Originally posted by Chovy
Compared to the universe actually we are ever smaller than a dot.

Also insignificant but strange how this made front page so fast, while my thread, 195 replies and 14 flags never made it, oh well.

[edit on 20-9-2009 by Chovy]

your post is from the 14th, a post cant make the front page after 24hours,

incidentally, i don't think this post made the front page, if it did, it was only for a moment and i missed it.

edited grammar

[edit on 9/20/2009 by Alaskan Man]

Originally posted by nixie_nox
Don't give up! I believe in you all.
A person's a person, no matter how small!

lol great dr. sues quote.

Compared to the galaxy and the universe we are like a spec of dust for real. Like a drop of water in an endless sea.

It really is humbling.

i was thinking have astronomers ever tried to figure out how hard our planet would be to spot for an extra terrestrial observer. If say they were using similar tricks we employ. Maybe we could figure out ways to make it easier to spot us, instead of finding them....???