This image was snapped by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013. The view of Earth (upper left) was taken at the same time from the geostationary weather satellite, GOES-East.
"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again 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 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. 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. 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."
— Carl Sagan
#NoPlaceLikeHome
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / PHL @ UPR Arecibo / NERC Satellite Station / Dundee University / Val Klavans
about.me/valerieklavans
Tags: #NoPlaceLikeHome earth daytheearthsmiled saturn planet waveatsaturn wave pale blue dot cassini cassini mission nasa jpl ssi iss Planetary planetary science rings solar system space Astronomy Astrobiology spacecraft july 19 2013 earthday day carl sagan val valerie klavans imaging science subsystem
This is a true color composite of Saturn and Earth as seen by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013.
These images were taken on July 19, 2013 and received on Earth July 20, 2013. The camera was pointing toward SATURN-ERING at approximately 857,326 miles (1,379,732 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using the CL1, CL2, RED, GRN and BL1 filters.
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / composite by Val Klavans
about.me/valerieklavans
Tags: saturn planet waveatsaturn earth rings cassini huygens mission nasa jpl ssi val valerie klavans space astronomy enceladus e-ring NoPlaceLikeHome
This is a true color composite of Saturn and Earth as seen by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013.
These images were taken on July 19, 2013 and received on Earth July 20, 2013. The camera was pointing toward SATURN-RINGS at approximately 857,372 miles (1,379,807 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using the CL1, CL2, RED, GRN and BL1 filters.
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / composite by Val Klavans
about.me/valerieklavans
Tags: saturn planet waveatsaturn earth rings cassini huygens mission nasa jpl ssi val valerie klavans space astronomy NoPlaceLikeHome
This is a true color composite of the Earth and Moon, viewed by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013.
These images were taken on July 19, 2013 and received on Earth July 20, 2013. The camera was pointing toward EARTH at approximately 898,419,474 miles (1,445,865,990 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using the RED, GRN, BL1, CL1 and CL2 filters.
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / composite by Val Klavans
about.me/valerieklavans
Tags: earth moon saturn planet cassini huygens mission waveatsaturn wave daytheearthsmiled smile nasa jpl ssi val valerie klavans NoPlaceLikeHome