Pale Blue Dot

The Voyager 1 space probe was launched in 1977 to study the outer Solar System. On February 14, 1990, when the probe had traveled about 3.7 billion miles, the probe's camera was turned around to get a final photo of Earth. Earth appears as a tiny, bright dot in the band of light on the right. Carl Sagan, who proposed the idea of the picture, wrote a book Pale Blue Dot (1994) in which he reflects on our smallness in the universe. "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."

 

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