I want share this picture I found a couple of years ago. What you're about to focus your eyes on is a picture of the Earth. Yes, the planet we live on. What makes this picture special is the fact that it was taken from a human very very far away.
Take a look...
How does that make you feel? I tried writing for a little while about how it makes me feel but I can't describe it. It's complicated. We all know our tiny place in the universe but we tend to forget it as soon as we stop thinking about it and start thinking about ourselves and our insignificant problems.
The Spacecraft (Voyager 1) that this picture was taken from is still flying away from us and is now 16 light hours away. Meaning, of course, that the light from the Earth takes 16 hours to get there. Which means that the above picture shows where the Earth was 16 hours before the picture was taken. Here's a picture showing it's approximate location...
Notice how this illustration is has to be so far from the Sun the the orbits of the inner planets are imperceivable. The nearest planet to Sun that is distinguishable is Saturn. Do you know how far away Saturn is? It's so far from the Sun that it takes 29.5 years to go around the Sun once. Saturn is 891 million miles. If you have about ten minutes, you really should watch this next video. It's narrated by Morgan Freeman, so you know it'll be good...
Wow that picture really brings it home. Makes me feels really bad for ants because if we are just a spec on a spec then what are they?!
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