The spacecraft was a long way from home
On the last journey of humans to the moon
The ship was speeding away from the earth at 80,000 km an hour
Beyond the orbit of the outer most planets at the very edge of our solar system
5.7 billion km from Earth
I thought it might be wise for them to take one last look back at the now distant Earth
Such a picture just might be worth having
No one had seen a view of it like this
I thought it might assist in understanding our true reality and our place in the universe
This would be our last chance for decades to come
At the very last minute
Just before the ship was out of radio range
And lost to the depths of space forever
It received an urgent message from Earth
It turned its cameras back
It shot 50 photographs
So far away that it took each pixel 5 and half hours
Travelling at the speed of light to reach us
The big radio telescope in Australia
That received these whispers from the edge of the solar system
Revealed to us the most profound image humanity had ever seen
It was the single moment
That put our entire existence into true perspective for the very first time
We saw our beautiful tiny planet sitting in a beam of light
Like a pale blue dot gently drifting
In the awe-inspiring grand wonder of the sea of space
This famous photograph of our fragile world has become an icon of our age
The blueish cast of this dot compared to the greatness of the universe
Looks like a mere tiny point
In a vast, enveloping, cosmos
That's here
That's home
That's us
