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Earth and the moon look like mere specks amid the blackness of outer space in a picture sent back by NASA's Juno probe during its trip to Jupiter. Maybe the view from 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) isn't as impressive as the close-ups we're accustomed to, but it does call to mind what the late astronomer Carl Sagan said about our pale blue dot almost two decades ago: "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."
Juno's principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute, echoed Sagan's comments in today's image advisory: "This is a remarkable sight people get to see all too rarely. This view of our planet shows how Earth looks from the outside, illustrating a special perspective of our role and place in the universe. We see a humbling yet beautiful view of ourselves."
The $1.1 billion Juno mission was launched on Aug. 5 and won't enter Jovian orbit until 2016. But this won't be the last we'll see of Juno. The spacecraft is due for a slingshot close encounter with Earth in 2013, coming as close as 300 miles (500 kilometers). Until then, Godspeed, Juno....
More views of Earth from deep space:
- Deep Impact probe sends alien's-eye view of Earth
- Japan's moon probe updates Earthrise picture
- Rosetta comet probe takes Earth snapshot
- Rover spots Earth amid Martian sunrise
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
"Insignificant."
What do you mean by that? And why is it in quotes? And why has it been voted up 4 times. Certainly it can not be that you think the view from Juno is "insignificant". Certainly you can not think that our "pale blue dot" is "insignificant".
Certainly you need to clarify your statement, so that we can all be certain of what you mean.
(guess the word of the day)
I voted MJHVG's comment up, Mob. To each their own interpretation, but to me the Earth is insignificant on the scale of the cosmos. (And yet, as far as we know, we are the only pale blue dot that can think and dream and learn about the Universe.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M
I think he needs a spell in the 'total perspective vortex' hehehehe
(gratuitous hitchhikers reference there).
Anyone who says that about God's Earth is himself "Insignificant".
BTW, Muhamed Jesus H Vishnu-Goldstein gotta be a made-up Islam, Mexican, Hindu, Jewish name.
Dude.. don't you get it... we're all in it together. None of your religions matter. An achievement for one is an achievement for all.
Religion is even less significant than the Earth.
Which God are you referring to? Thor or the Spagheti Monster?
One little planet...so many S370HSSV!
We got to get off of this rock before the religious fanatics kill us all.
Beautiful
Indeed. Voted up.
Wow! What a picture. I am at a loss for words... It makes you feel vulnerable and at the same time cherish everything that is Planet Earth while the clock is ticking.
We huff, and puff, on this planet, like we mean something, the Universe doesn't care, if were here or not.
Just some more grains of dirt blowing around......{8-(
Kind of puts it all in perspective. We're just another bright speck in the night sky to ET. Nothing special.
What struck me most about the photo was the moon. Nice to get some real perspective on it's size and distance from earth.
Thanks Alan
Take a left at the 3rd Rock from the sun. Very pretty picture. It's almost like biofeedback. Here we sit! Trying our damnest to conquer this rock, and polluting it in the process. This picture should drive home the fact that there AIN'T ANYWHERE ELSE to go just yet. That and the fact that everyone alive on this rock will be dead and dust two hundred years from this instant.
From 6 million miles out, I thought the Earth and Moon would appear to be closer than that. That's why I love pictures like this, I'm always surprised and humbled by the ever changing perspective that they provide. Thank you NASA.
Thank Japan, they took this picture, not NASA.
Check the photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Zach - did you automatically think it was a Japanese probe because of the name Juno?
Zach,
Juno is operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL-Caltech), built by Lockheed Martin.
The "JunoCam" itself was provided by "Malin Space Science Systems (or MSSS), a San Diego, California company that designs, develops, and operates instruments to fly on unmanned spacecraft." It launched atop an Atlas V from Cape Canveral on 8/5/2011.
Why not take a minute to look these things up?
How many more specks of light like that are there in that universe? Wonder.
Earth is the one known place in the universe where chocolate and coffee exist. That by itself proves the existence of GOD and that we are on GOD's favorite planet. This also means we need to preserve this planet so we can continue enjoying chocolate and coffee.
I thought this would be very appropriate to post this here, take a look and enjoy.
Carl..... You Are Missed. Tom And Lyn
A Quote From Carl Sagan
Pale Blue Dot
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.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
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.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. 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
i just crushed the earth between my thumb and index finger.... HA! fun times in the work space ^_^