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Earth: The Pale Blue Dot by Michael Marantz (Video)

Cropped: Earth from Moon (taken by the Chinese Queqiao satellite) of Chang'e 4 mission
The first images of the Earth and the Moon captured from China's Queqiao lunar communications relay satellite, a key component of Chang'e 4 lunar landing mission. Chang'e 4 is a planned Chinese lunar exploration mission, to be launched in December 2018, that will incorporate an orbiter, a robotic lander, and rover. After Chang'e 3, it will be China's second lunar lander and rover. Queqiao, meaning "Magpie Bridge", is a key component of the mission. The satellite was launched to Earth-Moon L2 point Notes 2 on 20 May 2018. It will provide a continuous communications link to Earth while the probe does its exploratory work on the far side of the Moon: a job the lander and rover can't do for themselves because all the rocky body of the Moon would get in the way. Image: CNSA

A very inspirational video created by Michael Marantz, titled “Earth: The Pale Blue Dot”, contains readings from Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot“.

“Earth: The Pale Blue Dot” by Michael Marantz. In his own words: “Carl Sagan provides the epic narration to this piece. His great ability to convey such overwhelming topics in relatable ways inspired me to make this.” Shoot locations: Mexico, Utah.

Director Michael Marantz used time-lapse photography and narration from Carl Sagan’s 1994 book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space.

Marantz says “This piece contains readings from Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot. I have edited his words to tell this short narrative. Everything in this video is created by myself except for the words of Carl Sagan.”

Earth: The Pale Blue Dot

The transcript of the video:

We were hunters and foragers. The frontier was everywhere. We were bounded only by the earth, the ocean, and the sky. The open road still softly calls. Our little terraqueous globe is the madhouse of those hundred thousand millions of worlds. We, who cannot even put our own planetary home in order, riven with rivalries and hatreds; are we to venture out into space?

Pale Blue Dot reprocessed (cropped)

Related: NASA digitally remasters the iconic “Pale Blue Dot” photo

By the time we are ready to settle even the nearest other planetary systems, we will have changed. The simple passage of so many generations will have changed us; necessity will have changed us. We are… an adaptable species. It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very like us, but with more of our strengths, and fewer of our weaknesses; more confident, farseeing, capable, and prudent.

For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders undreamt of in our time, will we have wrought in another generation, and another? How far will our nomadic species have wandered, by the end of the next century, and the next millennium?

Our remote descendants, safely arrayed on many worlds through the solar system, and beyond, will be unified, by their common heritage, by their regard for their home planet, and by the knowledge that, whatever other life may be, the only humans in all the universe, come from Earth. They will gaze up and strain to find the blue dot in their skies. They will marvel at how vulnerable the repository of all our potential once was, how perilous our infancy, how humble our beginnings were, and how many rivers we had to cross before we found our way.

Carl Sagan - Earth: The Pale Blue Dot
Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences.
M. Özgür Nevres
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Özgür Nevres

By M. Özgür Nevres

I am a software developer and a science enthusiast. I was graduated from the Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Computer Engineering. In the past, I worked at the Istanbul Technical University Science Center as a science instructor. I write about the planet Earth and science on this website, ourplnt.com. I am also an animal lover! I take care of stray cats & dogs. This website's all income goes directly to our furry friends. Please consider supporting me on Patreon, so I can help more animals!

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