Trail4 steps
Looking back at Earth
A photo, a record and a lonely point in the ocean that change your sense of scale.
Some ideas are useful because they change your sense of proportion. This trail is a short course in perspective.
- I
From six billion kilometres away, everything we know fits in less than a pixel.
No. 090EventSpaceThe Pale Blue Dot In 1990, from about 6 billion kilometres away, Voyager 1 turned around and photographed Earth. We take up less than a pixel. - II
The same spacecraft carries a message about who we are.
No. 048ObjectSpaceThe mixtape we sent to the stars Two spacecraft leaving the solar system carry a gold-plated record with whale song, a kiss, 55 greetings and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”. - III
Back on Earth, there is a place where the nearest humans are in orbit.
No. 098PlaceGeographyPoint Nemo, where spacecraft go to die There is a spot in the Pacific so remote that the nearest humans are often the astronauts passing overhead. - IV
And the simplest question of all: why does our home look blue?
No. 110ConceptScienceWhy the sky is blue, and not violet Air scatters blue light more than red. By that logic the sky should be violet. Here is why it isn’t.