In February 2007, commemorating the 10th anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death, a video by Irish artist Ice Core Scientist called Pale Blue Dot appeared on You Tube.

It quickly began to attract the attention of prominent science and astronomy bloggers. He was inspired by an essay written by the late Carl Sagan, reflecting on a single deep photo of planet Earth taken by one of the Voyager spacecraft as it passed the outer edge of our planets.

When Voyager reached the edge of our Solar System in 1991, the late astronomer Carl Sagan suggested that they instruct the spacecraft to take a farewell photo of Earth, which they did.

The photo sent back by Voyager was truly humiliating, a low-resolution image showing a small blue speck accidentally caught in a shaft of sunlight. He moved Dr. Sagan along with his wife Ann Druyan to write a book entitled Pale Blue Dot: A vision of the Human Future in Space.

Part of the book includes a profound philosophical essay read by Dr. Sagan in a commencement address shortly before he died in 1996.

This is what he wrote:

“Look again at that point. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. In it, all the people you love, all the people you know, all the people you’ve ever heard of, all the human beings you They ever existed, they lived their lives.The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of religions, ideologies and trusted economic doctrines, every hunter and gatherer, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young man. couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, all the moral teachers, all the corrupt politicians, all the “superstars”, all the “supreme leaders”, all the saints and sinners in the history of our species they lived there, on a speck of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic stage. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they became the momentary owners of a fraction of a point. Think of the endless cruelties that the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel commit to the barely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill each other, how fervent their hatreds.

Our positions, our supposed self-importance, the illusion that we have a privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic darkness. In our darkness, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

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 can migrate. Visit, yes. Calm down, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. Perhaps there is no better demonstration of the madness of human concepts than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to treat each other more kindly and to preserve and care for the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

–Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994″

These words made it to the front page of YouTube when the editors chose to feature the Ice Core Scientists video in June 2007. It immediately created a storm of commentary among religious and atheists, but more often just awe.

Literally hundreds of different versions of the Pale Blue Dot have appeared since then, which just goes to show that you can’t hold a good idea down! The Most Viewed actually outperformed the original Ice Core Scientists version in views, perhaps appropriately, as it features the voice of Dr. Sagan himself, using a sample from the Pale Blue Dot audiobook version. In May 2008, as part of Pangea Day, another version of the Pale blue Dot was released, once again highlighting this profound perspective of our place in the Universe.

This humble photo of our little planet has unleashed a unique challenge to see our planet in a way humanity hasn’t, since we thought it was flat.

Also read Dr. Sagan’s book Contact, which explored similar themes and was made into a movie starring Jodie Foster.

Check out the original Pale Blue Dot version of the Ice Core Scientist that started it all and pass it on to your friends as an inspirational gift.