The Pale Blue Dot
On the 14th February 1990 a small space craft turned its camera and from 3.7 billion miles away pointed it towards planet earth and took a picture. In that picture was a small point of light within a scattering of light rays. That small dot, less than one pixel wide, was the planet earth. A tiny spot in a vast backdrop of empty blackness, bathed in sunrays. At first glance, it is just appears to be a very pixelated picture, nothing that inspiring, that is, until you start thinking about what that tiny dot represents.
Above: Picture taken by Voyager I in 1990 looking back at the earth.
In 1994, the late Carl Sagan wrote a book, “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, in it he wrote a passage of words that will forever make you stop, standstill and think just about how unique planet earth is.
Here’s what he wrote:
“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 “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space” 1990
His words magnified just how unique the earth is and how each one of us, past and present are part of this small fragile world playing out a never ending story. It showed just how small we really are, how everything that plays our in everyone's lives happens on a small piece of rock 'suspended on a sunbeam' in a vast cold and infinite space.
Pale Blue Dot Poster Print by Wolf & Rocket
Our Pale Blue Dot poster is available through our website and features a minimalist depiction of the famous NASA picture with those inspire Carl Sagans words. Unique, bold and thought provoking the poster would be a perfect addition to anyone's wall or even as a gift.