Pale Blue Dot (book)

Infobox Book
name = Pale Blue Dot
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author = Carl Sagan
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language = English
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release_date = 1994
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preceded_by = Cosmos
followed_by = The Demon-Haunted World

"Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space" (1994) is a non-fiction book by Carl Sagan. It is the sequel to "" and was inspired by the "Pale Blue Dot" photograph, for which Sagan provides a sobering description. In this book, Sagan mixes philosophy about the human place in the universe with a description of the current knowledge about the Solar System. He also details a human vision for the future.cite web | title = "Pale Blue Dot" Media Reviews and Publisher's Notes on biblio.com| url = http://www.biblio.com/isbnsearch.php?isbn=0345376595]

Book summary

The first part of the book looks at the claims made throughout history that Earth and the human species are unique. Sagan makes two claims for the persistence of the idea of a geocentric, or Earth-centered universe: human pride in our existence, and the threat of torturing those who dissented from it, particularly during the time of the Roman Inquisition. However, he also admits that the scientific tools to prove the Earth orbited the Sun were (until the last few hundred years) not accurate enough to measure effects such as parallax, making it difficult for astronomers to prove that the geocentric theory was false.

After saying that we have gained humility from understanding that we are not, literally, the center of the universe, Sagan embarks on an exploration of the entire solar system. He begins with an account of the Voyager program, in which Sagan was a participating scientist. He describes the difficulty of working with the low light levels at distant planets, and the mechanical and computer problems which beset the twin spacecraft as they aged, and which could not always be diagnosed and fixed remotely. Sagan then examines each one of the major planets, as well as some of the moons—including Titan, Triton, and Miranda—focusing on whether life is possible at the frontiers of the solar system.

Sagan argues that studying other planets provide context for understanding the Earth—and protecting humanity's only home planet from environmental catastrophe. He believes that NASA's decision to cut back exploration of the Moon after the Apollo program was a short-sighted decision, despite the expense and the failing popularity of the program among the United States public. Sagan says future exploration of space should focus on ways to protect Earth and to extend human habitation beyond it. The book was published the year after the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, an event Sagan uses to highlight the danger Earth faces from the occasional asteroid or comet large enough to cause substantial damage if it were to hit Earth. He says we need the political will to track large extraterrestrial objects, or we risk losing everything. Sagan argues that in order to save the human race, space colonization and terraforming should be utilized.

Later in the book, Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, challenges readers to pick one of the other planetary dots photographed and featured in the book, and imagine that there are inhabitants on that world who believe that the universe was created solely for themselves. She shared Sagan's belief that humans are not as important as they think they are.

The first edition of the book includes an extensive list of illustrations and photographs, mostly provided by NASA.

Chapters

* Wanderers: An Introduction
# You Are Here
# Aberrations of Light
# The Great Demotions
# A Universe Not Made for Us
# Is There Intelligent Life on Earth?
# The Triumph of "Voyager"
# Among the Moons of Saturn
# The First New Planet
# An American Ship at the Frontiers of the Solar System
# Sacred Black
# Evening and Morning Star
# The Ground Melts
# The Gift of "Apollo"
# Exploring Other Worlds and Protecting This One
# The Gates of the Wonder World Open
# Scaling Heaven
# Routine Interplanetary Violence
# The Marsh of Camarina
# Remaking the Planets
# Darkness
# To the Sky!
# Tiptoeing Through the Milky Way

See also

* Carl Sagan
* Pale Blue Dot
*
* Cosmos (book)
* The Blue Marble

References

* cite book
last = Sagan
first = Carl
authorlink = Carl Sagan
title = Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
edition = 1st edition
year = 1994
publisher = Random House
location = New York
id = ISBN 0-679-43841-6

External links

* [http://www.thespacereview.com/article/261/1 Sagan's rationale for human spaceflight] Article about Carl Sagan and "Pale Blue Dot"
* [http://www.spaext.com/info/sagan/index.html Spaceflight or Extinction: Carl Sagan] Excerpts from "Pale Blue Dot"
* [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061016.html A new picture of Earth taken through the rings of Saturn] by the Cassini spacecraft on September 15, 2006. [http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08329 More information about photo.]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw We Are Here: The Pale Blue Dot.] A short fan-made film on The Pale Blue Dot, released a decade after Dr. Sagan's death. The posthumous narration is from Sagan himself, taken from one version of the audiobook version of "Pale Blue Dot".
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2588435272514121795 Unofficial film version of Chapter One (Google Video)]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Jd00uvxmQ0 A partial video tour of the Sagan Planet Walk monument in Ithaca, NY]