Vocabulary
Pale Blue Dot. It's a picture of your home.
Can you see your home in the photo below?
[Click forward arrow at the bottom for some help]
If the Voyager I Space probe was on Snapchat, it's the pic it would have sent you some years back. Voyager I, NASA's camera mounted hunk of metal hurling through space took the photo just before exiting our solar system. The photo was taken from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) from Earth. Karl Sagan, a famous astronomer and author asked NASA to control the space probe to turn around and take the photo before leaving our system. Hear his famous reflection of the picture in this video.
From all the billions of kilometers away we see our "Spacecraft Earth," the tiny planet with a built-in life support system that you were born into and that your children will more than likely call home.
In one way or another, the life support system on Spacecraft Earth provides the air you breathe, the food you eat, the water you drink. It sustains temperatures and pressures that your body can handle.
Yet, each day we use the atmosphere as a landfill for our waste. Factories, transportation, deforestation as well as our personal need to consume resources, all of these things are a danger to the life support system on planet Earth.
Scientists have been collecting data that shows a change in our planet's temperature, weather patterns, and sea level.
In this next unit we will look at this data and ask the questions:
- How is the Earth's climate changing?
- How can we as global citizens limit our impact on the Earth to ensure the best home for future generations?
Special thanks to Mr. Farren for the links to Pale Blue Dot and Blue Man Group and also for the idea of "Spaceship Earth."
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