A TRIBUTE
TO CARL SAGAN (1934-1996)
TO CARL SAGAN (1934-1996)
We succeeded in taking that picture (from deep space) and, if you look at it, you see a dot.
That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived,
lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every 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 rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they
could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants
of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot.
How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
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.
It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience.
To my mind, 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 and compassionately with
one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived,
lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every 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 rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they
could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants
of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot.
How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
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.
It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience.
To my mind, 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 and compassionately with
one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
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"REFLECTIONS ON A MOTE OF DUST"
BELOW IS A VIEW OF OUR PLANET IN THE WORDS OF THE LATE GREAT
AMERICAN ASTRONOMER, SPACE SCIENTIST, INTERNATIONALIST, UNIVERSAL
MAN AND 'MAN OF THE UNIVERSE' PROFESSOR CARL SAGAN, WHO DIED IN 1996.
HIS REFLECTIONS WERE BASED ON A UNIQUE IMAGE OF THE
EARTH (ABOVE) TAKEN BY THE VOYAGER 1 SPACE PROBE IN FEBRUARY, 1990.
THE PROBE HAD BEEN TURNED ROUND AT THE URGING OF CHIEF MISSION SCIENTIST SAGAN
TO TAKE A FINAL 'FAMILY SNAPSHOT' OF ALL THE PLANETS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, WHEN IT WAS
ALREADY BEYOND PLUTO AT A DISTANCE OF MORE THAN 6 BILLION KILOMETRES (40 A.U.) FROM THE SUN.
IT IS NOW 15 BILLION KM (100 A.U.) AWAY AND TRAVELLING IN INTERSTELLAR SPACE FOR THE FIRST TIME -
THE FARTHEST HUMAN-MADE OBJECT FROM THE EARTH
BELOW IS A VIEW OF OUR PLANET IN THE WORDS OF THE LATE GREAT
AMERICAN ASTRONOMER, SPACE SCIENTIST, INTERNATIONALIST, UNIVERSAL
MAN AND 'MAN OF THE UNIVERSE' PROFESSOR CARL SAGAN, WHO DIED IN 1996.
HIS REFLECTIONS WERE BASED ON A UNIQUE IMAGE OF THE
EARTH (ABOVE) TAKEN BY THE VOYAGER 1 SPACE PROBE IN FEBRUARY, 1990.
THE PROBE HAD BEEN TURNED ROUND AT THE URGING OF CHIEF MISSION SCIENTIST SAGAN
TO TAKE A FINAL 'FAMILY SNAPSHOT' OF ALL THE PLANETS OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, WHEN IT WAS
ALREADY BEYOND PLUTO AT A DISTANCE OF MORE THAN 6 BILLION KILOMETRES (40 A.U.) FROM THE SUN.
IT IS NOW 15 BILLION KM (100 A.U.) AWAY AND TRAVELLING IN INTERSTELLAR SPACE FOR THE FIRST TIME -
THE FARTHEST HUMAN-MADE OBJECT FROM THE EARTH
PEACE FOR PLANET EARTH
