Voyager Series: Pale Blue Dot

[Bill Floyd]

Dr. Sagan requested that Voyager 1's cameras be turned back toward Earth for one last photo before it began to pass beyond the borders of the solar system.  

The image we see is that of our planet viewed from 3.7 billion miles away.  The radio signal that brought it back to Earth, traveling at the speed of light, still took nearly six hours to reach the antennas of the Deep Space Network.  

The polarization and scattering effects of light reflected from Earth cause the image to appear primarily as black emptiness, intersected by long thin spectral lines, reddish, green, and brown in color, like columns or spindles or arms stretched as far as they can reach.

About halfway down the soft brown band to the right, a tiny speck where the history of everything we recognize as life has played out.

(If you look really close, you'll see me waving at you.)

    

 

[Angela]

So tiny.  Makes me want to detach from everything.  I have a natural tendency to do that anyway. :)  Very enjoyable series.  Informative and entertaining.

[Joey Delgado]

Always so damn interesting and entertaining. I liked your inclusion of the picture. And the last line? Well, damn if that's not poetic, I don't know what is.