SOMETHING WONDERFUL
Carl Sagan was a truly great science communicator.
This is only one of his many achievements.
He encouraged NASA to task the Voyager 1 spacecraft to generate this image which resulted in the famous... Pale Blue Dot.
This is the family portrait of
our solar system from 6 billion kilometres away
Within one of those Sun beams is
a pale blue dot... Earth
Everyone should read, understand and appreciate this quote by Carl Sagan from his documentary series 'Cosmos'
“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.”
In August 2012, the magnetic
particle detector on Voyager 1 showed a brief change in activity.
We understand this to signify the transition of the spacecraft out of
the solar bubble and into interstellar space.
A man made object has left the solar system.
Eventually, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and the New Horizons space craft will all leave the solar system and will probably long outlive the human race, in fact, they should remain in tact for millions, if not billions of years. The way we are destroying our environment, they could well be the only surviving artifacts that show we ever existed.
Another impressive image of our planet Earth, this time with our Moon
More than 30 years after Mariner 10 visited Mercury, NASA launched the Messenger spacecraft (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) to visit the planet closest to our Sun On Aug. 3, 2004. On May 6, 2010, the spacecraft snapped this picture of the Earth and the moon from 185 million kilometres away. The Earth is the larger dot, the moon the slightly smaller one right next to it.
And another view from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn, show the Earth and Moon through a gap in Saturn's rings.
cropped and enlarged > 
A couple of other great science communicators.
Karl is my hero. I have
listened to him for well over 30 years and he has a great knowledge base
on all science subjects. What he doesn't know, he either looks into and
finds an answer or contacts someone expert on that subject. He is still
on JJJ radio every Thursday. One of my often used lines... as Dr Karl
says...
I finally had the opportunity to meet him in person in April 2025... He
is still my hero.
Fred is a professional
astronomer and was Astronomer in Charge at Siding Spring Observatory for
some time. His official title now is "Astronomer at large". He is a
regular on ABC radio and often gives commentary on anything astronomy
related on TV. He has a great skill in communicating an often complex
subject in easy to understand terms without dumbing-down the material.
Fred kindly wrote the foreword for our book "Atlas of the Southern night
Sky" and is a very nice chap too.
Neil is Carl Sagan's successor
and does a fantastic job of opening peoples eyes to the wonders of the
cosmos.
Neil, along with Ann Druyan (Carl Sagan's wife) and Seth MacFarlane
re-made the Cosmos series and it is a must see for anyone interested in
anything and everything in the universe. Neil does lots of very
entertaining astronomy related podcasts "Star Talk" with his mate Chuck
Nice (very funny guy).
Having watched both the original and new version of Cosmos multiple times, I'm a huge fan of all those involved with the creation of both series. They are informative, uplifting and saddening all at the same time. The topic of global warming is discussed at length in both versions and we as a species, knew the writing was on the wall more than 30 years ago........ The reality of this problem is not the desire of the public to change the current trend of global warming but the overbearing influence of a very few selfish, narrow minded individuals who make obscene amounts of money and set policy to keep making more money from the causes of the problems which will ultimately result in the demise of our species.
