The pale blue dotWeary, exhausted and frustrated with all the news about the war that US President Donald Trump is waging in Iran, I welcomed the news about the Artemis II lunar flyby. The Earth was once described by astronomer Carl Sagan as a pale blue dot in a photograph taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft at Sagan’s request, as Voyager 1 was leaving the solar system — approximately 3.7 billion miles away. It is a beautiful planet, it’s alive, it’s always changing. Why else are we focused on developing ultimate weapons of mass destruction that will blow up our beautiful pale blue dot of a planet and annihilate all of us in the process? Sending our world leaders for a spin in outer space should let them feel what astronauts and cosmonauts have felt… a sense of humility and a resolve to protect this beautiful blue planet that is our only home.

Source: Philippine Star April 12, 2026 16:08 UTC