The Pale Blue Dot
A fantastic kinetic typography video made by @rogerscreations.
Audio taken from the audio book version of 'Pale Blue Dot' by Carl Sagan.
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18 comments posted so far. Expand all comments Login to add a comment.
32 
ever since i found out carl sagan was a pot smoker, i get the impression that every smart thing he said came to him when he was high. makes him ever more AWESOME!!
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3. beerholder 334 days ago
The speech is a classic. But the spelling on this video is awful. "corrupt politian"??? Really? 
27
He's a bit stating the obvious, but if everyone on earth could understand that, that would THE giant step for mankind.
32
I can say without any hesitation that we are not the only living beings in this universe. There are many many different theories of how life started and how it evolved to this stage. Well let me tell you this, and this isn't something that they teach you in school or university.
Distance between stars are measured in lightyears (the distance light travels in a year) because they are so far away. A galaxies difference in distance is measured in megaparsecs, (a million light years)
the sun is the closest star to us, and light takes EIGHT minutes to reach us. So when you look up at the sun, the light that reaches you left it 8 minutes ago. And the sun is pretty close to us.
Now for life, you need the PERFECT environment, and I mean perfect. If the earth's axis was 1degree either way, the earth would be inhabitable. The ozone is the correct thickness, without the ozone, daytime would be hitting 800degrees, nightfall hitting -300. Life is inhabitable in these instances, and there are MANY MANY more, the correct distance from a heat source for example (The sun in our case)
currently, we have found different planets that show habitable structures, but no life sources on them. What they don't tell you, is that these planets are so far away, light reaching us could have left thousands of millions of years ago. There is a high chance of life on that planet, but we just can't see it due to the speed of light, and how far away it is.
Interesting fact:
There are 8 planets in our solar system, there are 70 sextillion stars in our very own galaxy, all with orbiting rocks and planets. There are over 100 billion galaxies in the KNOWN universe.
The fraction earth is compared to the universe, would be equal to one atom in a whole galaxy,
23
#7 When trying to stress how big the known universe is to someone who does not know much about space you can't use and atom to a galaxy as a size reference.
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10. Sizzlik (admin) 334 days ago
#7 I tried 5 times to answer your comment..none of them are short enough to make it just one comment.
Well..put it together...
Watch the video again..listen to it..understand it
(The facts you give are right (partly) but are non relevant to the vid)
[Comment in a Nutshell]
31
#7 The habitability of Earth is not nearly as fragile as you suggest. Ozone blocks ultraviolet radiation. It does not have any large effect on temperature, and it fluctuates in thickness constantly. It didn't exist at all until well after life evolved, since free oxygen (from which ozone is constantly created) did not exist before it was created by life. Our distance to the sun varies throughout the orbit as well. Changing axial tilt would make seasons more or less severe at certain latitudes, but not affect overall habitability.
Furthermore, a megaparsec is not a million light years. It's a million parsecs. A parsec is the distance at which 1 AU (the distance from Earth to Sol) would subtend an angle of one arcsecond. When you do the math, you get 3.262 light years.
All these facts are accessible to anyone who pays attention in high school science classes.
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12. Voutelamberopipi 333 days ago
#11 "The habitability of Earth is not nearly as fragile as you suggest." - I don't want to throw this card but let me guess, american?
Related: If you're going to make a video, Carl Sagan deserves someone that (at least) knows how to spell.
32
#3
1 megaParsec = 3 261 636.26 light years
Without the ozone, C02 wouldn't be help to the earth as compactly as it did, heat wouldn't be kept in for night time and wouldn't be kept out for day time = extreme temperatures.
36
This is the picture #13 is referring to, and yes, the words of Carl Sagan seem diluted out of the context of this picture of Earth "suspended" on a sunbeam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
(91 votes)
+6
1. joeman 334 days ago
That was one smart guy...