This photo was taken on 11/16/2022 by a camera on the Artemis 1/Orion spacecraft on its way to the moon.
This is the first view of our pale blue dot of a water-soaked rock of a planet from this distance (~58,000 miles at this point) from a human-rated spacecraft since the Apollo 17 mission of 1972.
From this view, we see…
everything that gives us life and a future, everything we hold dear to us, everything that truly matters…
there are no countries, no dividing lines on maps, no walls, no human-created barriers, no labels, no division other than that imposed by nature.
All the things that divide us were created by us to divide us…all these divisions exist only within our minds.
These things we have fought over for so long, killed countless people over, claimed as ours – they just do not exist in reality.
In reality, what you see is what you get: a single, shining, incredibly fragile oasis of life in the ice-cold wastelands of space…a pale blue water-soaked marble giving all of us – the entire human family and all our animal, plant, and fungal friends – a place to share and call home.
Now is the time we stop fighting over what we should be sharing.
Now is the time for us to stop harming our only life support system.
Imagine.
Imagine what we could do if we all just worked together toward the common goal of a better future for us all.
NASA sends multiple space probes, landers, and rovers to the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and many of their moons and then, sends back photos and videos and lots of science of these amazing places that astounds the inhabitants of our world greatly increasing our knowledge of our place in our home solar system, our galaxy, and in the cosmos.
After taking almost a decade to arrive at comet 67PCG the people of planet earth watched in awe as the tiny spacecraft Rosetta rendezvoused with the comet and then, released its even more diminutive lander Philaewhich later briefly touched down and later came to rest – albeit at an unusual angle – on this ancient wandering body in space. Amazing data on the origins of the solar system was gathered, people of earth were astonished at the preciseness of the calculations – the coding, the math, and the science – required to make all this awesome discovery happen for our species.
NASA (and many other space agencies) have put several massive space telescopes into orbit that reveal the existence of countless galaxies, solar systems, and over four thousand exoplanets – some similar to our homeworld – orbiting other suns, and many other amazing hidden secrets of the cosmos.
…and then teams up with 15 other nations to build a massive space station – the International Space Station (ISS) – that is now orbiting 250 miles above our planet and moving at a speed of 17,500 mph.
This ISS has been continuously occupied by different astronauts from many different countries for over 20 years.
ISS Pizza Party. Credit NASA. Source:
It is an outpost in space that allows us puny fragile humans to live and work in a weightless environment in order to further our knowledge of our species and its place in the universe – and to prepare for deep space missions back to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
BTW: This is a space station that you can use a smartphone locator app (ISSonLive, ISSLiveNow, ISSDetector and more) to find in the night sky and then see with your own eyes from your own backyard. People are enlightened and astounded to the reality of it all.
NASA tells the world – several years early – a total eclipse of our star – the sun – will be happening on a certain day, at a certain time down to the second on a future date – so you better be there in a very narrow zone of totality across the continent or you will miss this once-in-a-lifetime “Great American Eclipse” event. Everyone takes NASA’s word as gospel and a mass migration of humans moves into position along the described zone of totality and all witnesses this totally amazing total solar eclipse.
Crowds gathered nationwide to watch the spectacle. Everyone was ready and in place for the once in a lifetime event.The solar eclipse during totality, seen from outside Crowheart, Wyoming; the photograph uses exposure bracketing to show both the Sun’s corona and the surface features of the new moon itself, illuminated by earthshine. A few solar prominences are visible around the lunar limb. Credit: Michael S Adler
Just as NASA scientists had stated several years before the event – the moon passed between the sun and the earth and at the exact times and locations as NASA had previously predicted – the Great American Eclipse happened.
Mike drop.
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NASA and many, many other scientists (all the way back to Clare Patterson – who not only discovered the age of our planet but may very well have saved all of us from lead poisoning) tells us that our earth is very, very, very old – on the order of 4.55 billion years to be as exact as scientifically possible.
Earth gif. Source – the “interwebs.”
This astonishing fact is supported by tons of geologic evidence in the crustal rocks of the planet and our Moon as well as evidence from ancient asteroids and comets as well as in the chemical/geological makeup of all planetary bodies in our solar system.
Yet today, even with all the before mentioned NASA awesomeness, and all the piles of evidence…
…many humans continue to choose to claim our planet is less than 10,000 years old…see: Young Earth Creationism.
This topic would not be complete without debunking the bizarre myth that we humans lived alongside dinosaurs. Put simply – no, we did not. If we had, we probably would not be here because they were DINOSAURS!
Stated a bit more clearly and with awesome animations.
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NASA uses its best science and technology to confirm our home planet is in fact round…and many, many, astronauts and spacecraft with cameras go into space and report that yes, our planet is in fact round.
Astronaut Mike Massimino over Earth. Credit NASA and Mike Massimino.
…and some people are like – NOPE. I just don’t believe it because from my point of view on the surface of the planet it just looks flat.
Riiiiiiight.
Some insight into the roundness of our planet.
Furthermore…
Imagine you are a bacterium on a beach ball – “Small sections of large curved surfaces will always look flat to little creatures that crawl upon it.” – NDT
NASA uses its best space and earth based tools (satellites, aircraft, ice cores, historic temperature readings, atmospheric monitoring stations, tree rings, lake and ocean sediments, and the peer-review process, etc.) to generate solid evidence supported by the vast majority of the planet’s scientists who study the earth’s climate systems to reveal their evidence to the world that our human activities are driving climate change by burning too many fossil fuels way too fast…
…and some people have chosen to totally ignore and deny this peer-reviewed evidence and are like –
“NOPE. I just don’t believe it.”
!!WTF humans WTF!!
If we do not want to have our home planet become another Venus…
…if we do not want our beautiful round planet to continue to be populated by a growing number of willfully ignorant, science and evidence doubting, conspiracy supporting, myth and legend preaching humans…
…if we do not want our species and many others to go the way of most of the dinosaurs…
…then, as we have done in the past in all matters of space and earth science, when it comes time to make the big decisions that impact us all and our shared environment – then we really need to start listening to NASA and the other experts who study our planet, our environment, and our climate and we need to fully trust them to guide us in our decision making process.
This is not rocket science but it is the definition of critical thinking: Disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, informed, and supported by evidence .
We need to be more like NASA.
We need to unite behind the science.
The future hinges on the decisions that we make today.
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