The earth feels pretty large, and we feel pretty tiny living in it.
But we rarely, if ever, stop to think about the vast beyond. And we should!
"There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world," former astronomer Carl Sagan has said. "To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known,” Sagan wrote in his book "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space."
So, just how small is planet earth really compared with the rest of outer space? These photos will help put our planet in perspective.
This humbling photo taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2013 shows what Earth, indicated by the tiny white arrow, looks like from 898 million miles away.
NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center
Superimposed next to Jupiter's Great Red Spot is North America. As you can see in this to-scale image, Jupiter's giant storm would completely swallow the entire continent.
Courtesy of John Brady who founded the blog Astronomy Central.
Saturn's rings are a beautiful spectacle of the cosmos, but they look much better on Saturn than on Earth.
Courtesy of John Brady who founded the blog Astronomy Central.
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