We, human beings, (NASA to be precise) took the greatest selfi of
solar system,on a Valentines day in 1990...and our hand was some 6 billion kilometer long, to take this selfi . Yes, am taking about the below pic.
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Well, this pic not making much sense to you ? Try this....that is how the sky..err...outer space looked, on that romantic Valentin's day.
This pic (the first one), is known as "The Family Portrait", that was made by joining some 60 different pictures by Voyager-1
Mmm...i guess, you are not able to get a closer look at "our" planet - the earth. Let me help you !
Seeing so many dots ? If so, clean your monitor ! You are supposed to see only one dot. In pale blue color. Thatz our earth ! Poor chap...it was not even a pixel in size. It is just a fraction of a pixel ....just 0.12 pixel in size !
Still trying to find your planet ? Hope this helps :
On Feb 14th, in 1990, as Voyager-1 completed its primary missions, NASA turned it around, and started taking these pics. NASA first took the pic of planets, which were far from Sun, since exposing camera to objects near to Sun might have damaged the camera (may be the it came with a limited warranty or no service station in outer space).
Once all those palanets said "Cheeeessee", NASA tried to focus on Earth. They used the darkest filter and exposure was for 5 milli seconds. And the the pictures from Voyager, traveling at the speed of light, took more than 5 hrs to reach to us !
To get a better view on, where the camera was, refer the below pic ,by Shereth, from Wiki :
Below is another view (pic by LERK created using Celestia, a 3D astronomy program)
And why are we blue ? Polarization scattering of lights from Earth gives this color effect. And that gives the name "The Pale Blue Dot" - for this picture. (Well, do you know, the pic of earth, taken by Appolo-17 is known as "The Blue Marble". It was on 1972. In 2012, NASA published "The Black Marble" - the night view of Earth.)
Now, back to Voyager.....want to see the most fascinating odometer ? Go to : http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/index.html
Do
you know, Voyager 2 was launched before Voyager 1 ? Yes, it was 2,
which took off 16 days earlier to 1. But, later, Voyager 1 over took
Voyager 2, and both are continuing the journey.
With
in next 300 years, this will reach Oort cloud - the place, which is
believed to be the birth place of comets. And it will take another
30,000 years to pass thru the Oort cloud ! But, we are going to miss
all that actions, since the energy source will be dry by 2025.
40,000 years from now, this tiny thing will be near to another star called Gliese 445. But the word "near" means, 1.6 Light Years near to that start !!!
40,000 years !! By that time, we will have new languages in Earth...we will have new Gods...new kings...new religions....but i am sure we will contuine our fight with each other.
Forget Milkyway, we are not even a dot in this solar system.....and our religion says, it is our God, not his/her God created, everything for us !! There are few lines by Carl Sagan, in his book, The Pale Blue Dot, which takes about the wars, the blood ....endless cruelties....misunderstandings...everything happening for this. We we can't blame....we are born to earn and rule, we do that in every possible way in every possible place.
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