Perspective

Forty Years After Earthrise

Category: Space
Posted on: December 23, 2008 12:00 AM, by Sheril R. Kirshenbaum

Forty years ago* on December 24, 1968, Earthrise was captured by astronaut William Anders during Apollo 8--the first manned voyage to the orbit of the Moon. It is a photograph that forever changed the way many humans perceive our place in the universe.

As we celebrate the new year, take a moment to consider our impact on this pale blue dot in the short span of time since then... and just imagine what we may yet accomplish and discover by 2048. (link)

 

click on photo for Wiki link

Follow the link "pale blue dot" above for a video clip and narration from Carl Sagan. The photograph and his thoughts on the "pale blue dot" always provide perspective and purpose.

Voyager I was launched in 1977. Science didn't learn anything from this picture but it was Carl Sagan's hope that maybe human beings could.  As Voyager I was about 4 billion miles from earth (a bit beyond the orbit of Pluto) in 1990 they turned it around at Carl Sagan's suggestion for a picture of our receding planet. It's still traveling and is now in interstellar space traveling at 37,790 mph. Voyager I and II both carry the famous gold record.

I found some basic statistics on world population, in 1970 there were 3.7 billion people on the planet, in 2007 there were 6.6 billion. Many of those now alive were not yet born in 1968. How much real progress has there been for most of those 6.6 billion since 1968?