The Day The Earth Smiled

  Cassini spacecraft captured this image from Saturn. That little dot is our earth. NASA/ESA

It was July 19, 2013 when cassini spacecraft turned back to capture Saturn's rings, our planet  earth and its moon. That little dot is our planet, the earth, the only home we have ever known. Earth, which is 144 crore kilometers away in this image, appears like a pale blue dot. The other bright dots are nearby stars. Our planet is a lonely speck of dust in the vast cosmic arena. This picture has united the world and brought people together.

July 19, 2013 was a saturday. It was 2:57 am in India. We were asleep when Cassini was looking at us. It takes 1 hour 20 minutes for the radio signals to reach us from Cassini. When the picture finally arrived on earth, it presented us a view of our home in the vastness of space. We discovered the earth truly.

Though I get many rejections as an entrepreneur on a daily basis, I try not to take it seriously. Look at that picture again. We are not going to live there forever on that planet. We come and go in a fraction of space-time. This picture makes me humble. It makes me realize who I am and why I am here. I chose this profession not to just educate but to unite people through cosmic perspective. 4 billion years of evolution, after 5 mass extinctions, humans have finally arrived on that planet. We are extremely special in that sense. Universe has given us the greatest chance to flourish. Let us deal kindly with one another, be empathetic and preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Inspired by Carl Sagan. 

Image Credits: NASA/ESA

Sreekanth Panjala
Science Popularizer | Author