All of Humanity is Also in the Image

I woke up today, flipped open my iPad at breakfast, and was greeted with this image.  Wow!!

Just click on the image. I’ll wait.

This fantastically gorgeous image of Saturn was created on July 19 2013 when the Cassini spacecraft passed through Saturn’s shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings — and a special treat.  If you know where to look, deep in the background, lay planet Earth. As Carl Sagan once told us, everybody you know, you love, every living being that know about in the solar system was captured as a tiny dot in the background of a Saturn image.

Go look at the image again. It’s clickable and will open a huge version for you to explore. Find Earth?  It’s one of those dots.  Here’s an annotated version to help you out.

The Cassini mission planners encouraged everybody to go out and wave at Saturn that day. And, a lot of us did.  We did, up here at our place in the mountains. We had visitors that day from Lithuania, and together we all turned, looked at the spot in the sky where Saturn lay, and waved and laughed.  So, we’re in there. So are you, whether you waved or not.

Lots of people sent in pics of themselves waving on what came to be known as “The Day Earth Smiled.”

Were you there?

Or, Somebody Wrote to Me about My Book!

I just got the coolest email from a student in India, who has a copy of my book, Astronomy 101: From the Sun and Moon to Wormholes and Warp Drive, Key Theories, Discoveries, and Facts about the Universe, which came out a few months ago and can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Urban Outfitters (I’m in URBAN OUTFITTERS?! … COOL!!!!), Powells, and many other fine emporia of reading material.

(Yes, it’s a long title. The publisher came up with it, so I worked with it like a pro. It’s not quite as long as one of the chapters, which are only around a thousand words each. From here on out, we’ll refer to it as  Astronomy 101: FTSAMTWAWDKTDAFATU,)

Now, I’ve written a few other books in my time, and occasionally I’ve gotten fan letters from readers, so this isn’t a new experience. When you write a book, particularly about space and astronomy, it opens one up for some unusual experiences.

Like the time I went to an American Astronomical Society meeting and met two astronauts who were training to work on the Hubble Space Telescope. They asked if I’d autograph copies of a recently released Hubble book I had co-authored with John Brandt, called Hubble Vision, for them; it was part of their reading as they did their training.It wasn’t the first time I’d met astronauts; we had ’em coming and going a lot when I was in graduate school, but the fact that these guys were using the book as they trained. That was cool.

And, then there was the time I was at Johnson Space Center in Houston for a little tour and the astronaut showing us around was Dr. John Grunsfeld. He had a copy of the Hubble book waiting for my autograph! He also sent me an email from space on one of his missions that began, “Carolyn, Greetings from space.”  

Now, that was a cool email. Sure, today all kinds of people get email from Earth-orbiting astronauts (when citizens of the Earth-orbiting artificial satellite called ISS have time in between exhaustive science projects and food hockey demonstrations to get on the computer, check Facebook and send email) but back then (in 2002), email from the Shuttle was kinda rare for us civilians. It was like winning a grand prize. And, since then, after reading my book and working to turn Hubble Space Telescope into the greatest thing in astronomy history since the invention of the heated observing cage, the filar micrometer, AND pocket handwarmers, John has gone on to become a honcho at NASA.

So, there ARE paybacks for writing (and reading) good books.

But, I digress. This young person in India wrote saying he had a copy of my Astronomy 101: FTSAMTWAWDKTDAFATU, he’s read it, and wants to know more. So, I’ll be writing him back a letter explaining how I used to research comet tails, particularly the plasma tails. And how much I really wanted to study Mars in graduate school. And maybe a little about an observing experience I had on Mauna Kea in Hawai’i. Stories like those personalize science for people. And, that’s kinda what it’s all about sometimes—writing about science and the people who spend their lives bringing humanity’s knowledge of the cosmos to a “knowable” level.

I visited my correspondent’s Web page and he’s a writer himself, so it looks like he’s a kindred spirit.  I will most definitely ask, “How did you get my book?” It’s a great gift idea, so maybe that’s how he got it. Or, maybe he was looking through Amazon’s vast array of offerings available to him in India, and ran across my book and decided to get it. However he acquired Astronomy 101: FTSAMTWAWDKTDAFATU, I’m glad that he did. It always pleases me when people buy my books. And it’s true, this one does make a great gift for somebody you know (or yourself) interested in learning more about the sky but just didn’t get around to studying the stars somewhere along the line.

And, if you do get and read it, write to me. It still (after all the books and articles I’ve written) gives me a little cheery feeling when I get reader letters. I like to know when some cool astronomical thing I wrote about sparks cool thoughts about the subject in your brain.