Pale blue dot

Pale Blue Dot  - a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 3.7 billion miles.

One of my favorite photographs is a picture of Earth from 3.7 billion miles away.

It was taken in 1990 by a NASA space probe called Voyager 1.

Earth is barely noticeable in the frame. Our whole planet is less than a pixel. The American astronomer Carl Sagan described it as a “pale blue dot.” It inspired one of his book titles.

When we’re anxious or stressed, it can be helpful to remember that whatever we’re experiencing is a small moment in time on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

If we’re inclined to believe in a Higher Power that loves us, we can remind ourselves that we matter. But that thing stressing us out? Doesn’t seem so significant from 3.7 billion miles away.

Look again at 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.

- Carl Sagan