Pale Blue Dot

Hello! It's April and this is my first post of 2022 *nervous laughter.* I hope you all are doing good and it's nice to be back! 

Today is Earth Day! I have been swooning over all the little doodles and animations google and youtube have incorporated today. Though the climate change doodle is a bit appalling. Whenever someone mentions something about the Earth, global warming, or climate change there is just one thing I can think of- 'Pale Blue Dot.' 

Carl Sagan was an astronomer and the host of the wickedly brilliant 80s show- Cosmos. He spoke about everything, from prehistoric life to technology, but most importantly, space. Carl Sagan invoked an urge to seek life outside our planet and trek the stars. He conveyed astonishing topics in simple language and used mystical special effects (unique at that time) to engross people in the splendor of the universe.

When I first watched it, I was amazed by how futuristic the show was. It was almost like Carl Sagan and his team had hopped in a time machine and came to the future and then went back in time with all the new knowledge they had garnered! It increased my love for the stars immensely! 

A few years back, Cosmos was brought back to the television with a new host Neil deGrasse Tyson! I spoke a bit about the show over here! 

In a time when everyone was head over heels with the idea of extraterrestrials, NASA decided to launch two robotic interstellar probes to expedition outside our solar system and maybe one day make first contact with another intelligent species. The Voyager Program with the two stately Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 Spacecrafts. Scientists really wanted to meet aliens so they included a "message" for the aliens, in the form of a Golden Record! 

Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 a bit later- on September 5, 1977. Voyager 1 was put on a quicker and shorter trajectory. Both of them were able to take beautiful pictures of the outer planets and expand our knowledge of their moons. Voyager 1 made a flyby to Titan (Saturn's moon) and see if it had any chances of supporting life! 

As Voyager 1 was leaving the solar system, Carl Sagan (who was on the mission team) asked the officials to turn the camera around and let the spacecraft take one last look back at Earth before it voyaged into the abyss. 

And there we were. 

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

All 7 Billion of us, scooched in a tiny speck of dust. Hard to believe that all the might of our planet- the mountains, the countries, the oceans, the cultures, the vehicles, the clouds, the internet... everything, is reduced to a Lilliputian dot that we can't even spot clearly from far out. 

It really puts things into perspective. 

To quote Carl Sagan: 

We might be floating on this lonely microscopic blob in the enormous reaches of space, but no matter how big or how small, this planet is ours and we've got to protect it. 

"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."

Here is Carl Sagan, in his own words, talking about the pale blue dot. 

Maya Angelou, moved by this picture, wrote a wonderful poem called 'A Brave and Startling Truth' which she recited at the United Nations. Here is an excerpt from it. 

"When we come to it

We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe

Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger

Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace

We, this people on this mote of matter

In whose mouths abide cankerous words

Which challenge our very existence

Yet out of those same mouths

Come songs of such exquisite sweetness

That the heart falters in its labor

And the body is quieted into awe" 

You can find the whole poem over here. 

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still in contact with us and their communications are expected to be functioning till 2025. After that... they're on their own. 

Well, that's all. I hope you enjoyed reading this post. I did find myself creeping into existential crises as I was typing this out, haha! Did you do anything special for Earth Day? Know any more facts about the Voyager missions? Watched Cosmos? Read any another Maya Angelou poems? Any tips to make my writing better? Are you a blogger too? 

Tell me in the comments! 😁