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Pale Blue Dot: Carl Sagan

On the 14th of February 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft, at a distance of 6 billion kilometres from Earth, was asked by astronomer Carl Sagan to turn its camera around and take one last picture of Earth.

The tiny blue pixellated dot that represented Earth, taken in that picture, was then famously contextualised by Sagan, as he reflected on the significance of the dot in the photo, and Earth's place in the Universe, in his book, "Pale Blue Dot".

Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot speech
"The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life... 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

Phill Pullinger
Phill Pullinger
Phill is a GP, conservationist, author of Tarkine Trails, and co-founder of Kuno. Phill has broad...


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