Carl Sagan's Pale blue dot image.

My girlfriend just does not get the blue dot
Sigh...

I tried to explain it to her but mleaugh I get the blue DOT!

Ah very Amazing. But perhaps the Universe would be incomplete without this blue dot. The atom is incomplete without the electron, the molecule is incomplete without the complete atom, and so on and so forth. How do we know the absence of the seemingly small and unimportant blue dot would not completely change the universe? Oh the questions and speculations. Great thread!

Just beautiful.
I love how it brings humility and morale into human perspective.
Truly gives a definition on how we must act, why we should act in such ways, and where we will end up..if we do not help ourselves; total annihilation.

Great stuff.

Vale Carl Sagan.

Personally, this video is my favorite representation of Carl Sagan's word. The editing, music, images is absolutely perfect. Enjoy.



Still runs chills up my spine everytime.

reply to post by karl 12


I don't star much.

Thanks for posting that.

Wow!! Thats all I can say

Thats a pretty inspiring piece of work and really puts into perspective how insignificant all these wars and unescessary suffering on this pale blue dot really are, compared to the wonder that is the universe. Thanks for posting this, definently worth a star and flag

[edit on 18/2/2009 by OzWeatherman]

reply to post by karl 12
Another good thread

This video is dedicated to Carl Sagan. It's called Hubble: The Most Important Image Ever Taken.



Never ceases to make me wonder. The Universe is way to big for us to be the only blue dot in it. If we were the only life in the neighborhood, we'd be lonely like the last human on Earth shouting, "Hello? Is anyone there?" into the darkness. Chilling.

Still! Sagan thought that the ONLY life in the Universe was us humans?
He was not the guy you all thought he was, Sagan always rejected an extraterrestrial explanation for the UFO phenomenon. That seems to me like a very short minded person at least. I did not like this government servant at all.

Nice. Always had a soft spot for those flyby/you are here animations. Closest I'm going to get to Mars.

A for the video.


But.

To say that it puts war and suffering into perspective is a little er, how can I put this,

sorry,
plain old hippy talk (with apologies to hippies).

The sentiment is commendable however, I am not insignificant. The fact I am here typing this and you are reading it kinda proves that. Yes, in the galactic scheme of things I can be considered insignificant. Perhaps in the same way 100 years of high global temperatures can be compared to the geological age of planet Earth.

Perhaps Dienekes you are correct. This one little blue dot is absolutely intrinsic the the existence of everything else, like in an atom.

Like I said, great video, but if anything it reinforces my belief that I am important and life has value and meaning; that is not in the least bit insignificant.

Originally posted by Cool Hand Luke
Personally, this video is my favorite representation of Carl Sagan's word. The editing, music, images is absolutely perfect. Enjoy.

Still runs chills up my spine everytime.

Great thread S+F, never seen that image before. Although I have seen the deep field hubble pictures.

This video here is really good, if you like cinema. Man so many great movies depeicted there.

Also props to the guy(sorry forgot your name) who made the zoom out video, and multiverse. Exellent job, and amazing use of the Mandlebrot Set. That was mind blowing.

I don't see how some of you are are getting that Sagan thought we were the only life in the known Universe. I think you kinda missed the entire point of the image, and what he is saying.

As far as him being a UFO skeptic so what, there's still no hard proof we've been visited by ET's.

But I'm sure Sagan would agree with the Drake equation.

Dots, the universe, doesn't matter about size as it ALL resides in one place. YOUR HEAD.

Can't get emotional about a dot that is just part of a genetically created hologram.

That was sweet.. Almost like a punch in the chest....
First time a have seen it...

Yeah... For world peace to truly have a chance to exist we must all sacrifice alot of our egos... which are illusions anyway.

I think this video helps to accomplish this.

We're on that dot RIGHT NOW!!! I am on that dot, this very second... typing into a computer? This makes me want to go outside.

[edit on 18-2-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

Wasnt it Sagan who sent a coded radio message or something out in deep space looking for response from extra terrestials? If he was a big alien-sceptic this would be a strange thing to doo, dont you think?

reply to post by Kukulcangod


I agree. He was very vocal about the absence of hard evidence of the (intelligently) nonhuman presence, yet if ever approached in a factually thorough enough way about the problems of secrecy-based government in general, I'm sure his eyes would glaze over and data wouldn't compute. Or he'd short circuit. Sadly I believe he would have supported the official 9/11 spiel.

reply to post by Nirgal


I agree with Nirgal - its a great photo that shows just how bloody big the universe actually is and yes when you look at it from that kind of perspective then just how insiginifanct we are..

Personally I have too much on my plate in terms of work / bills / mortgage / family etc in my day to day life to afford the luxury of sitting back and saying "what does it matter? im insignificant" From my perspective, in my real world, I am very significant; I need to work and to earn money so my kids dont starve, I need to take them to weekend sport / drama rehearsals / friends houses and whatever the hell else they have got themselves involved with this week...

In essence its the same for us all as individuals, we have no idea whats out there, sure we can speculate and postulate all we want, but we can do nothing substantial about whatever it is. What we can effect is our own world, our own perspective. Example (probably could of used a better one); Hitler / Ghengis Khan / Alexander The Great etc - all at the head of invading armies, hell bent on conquering as much as they could through war; that behaviour is significant, especially to those who were trampled on and/or killed as a result, those whose lives were forever affected because of their behaviour..

Just because there is a photo of Earth taking from billions of light years away that shows a small blue dot, does not mean we should forget or neglect our lives and our responsibilities down here. Dont lose your perspective because you just realised how bloody big the universe is!!

Sorry for the rant; and I do actually agree that the photo does provoke food for thought, just not at the expense of losing sight of whats really important to us as individuals

Carl Sagan obviously did a lot to inform the world about the universe and ourselves, but I can't help but feel a bit ambivalent about him.

People like Richard Hoagland & Brian O'Leary, who knew him back then seem pretty convinced that he was "in on it" and deliberately used his position to spread misinformation.

Originally posted by NorTom
Wasnt it Sagan who sent a coded radio message or something out in deep space looking for response from extra terrestials?

It seems he was heavily involved with the Voyager 1 space craft which sent out the most famous 12 inch record in history.

Voyager 1 and 2 carry a golden record, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record – a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.

en.wikipedia.org...

Images found on record:
www.pantherhouse.com...

He also had the foresight to persuade the NASA engineers that,after its primary mission of taking photos beyond the orbit of Neptune, the camera on the spacecraft should be turned back for one last look at Earth (which was 400 billion miles away) -very wise man
Cheers


[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]