Hansen, along with astrophysicist Carl Sagan who wrote a book inspired by the image titled A Pale Blue Dot, kept asking for the image of Earth until Voyager 1 was coming up on its encounter with Neptune when they secured extra funding for the additional resources.Īnd the result was worth it, the image showed a tiny speck all on its own, surrounded by nothing in the vast universe. We didn’t feel like we really had the resources to really do that type of engineering." NASA/JPL-CaltechĪmazingly enough, the Voyager twins are still operational until today, beaming down crucial data on the border that separates us from the rest of the cosmos.īut this image was never on the Voyager’s agenda.Ĭandice Hansen, a planetary scientist at NASA who was part of the team behind the original image, tells Inverse she was also one of the people who asked for the photo to be taken: "It was outside the realm of what we usually did with the spacecraft. Pale Blue Dot ships as a printed, professionally bound score and includes individual parts in PDF format for printing or tablet viewing.This was the angle from which Voyager 1 took the iconic image. The performer can play these figures in both triple lateral or single alternating sticking combinations. These patterns are encouraged to be performed in the same manner as a chorale with consideration toward melody, harmonic motion, and voice leading. Repeated sextuplets flutter across the instrument creating a weightless and sparkling effect throughout the work. Pale Blue Dot is a thought-provoking marimba solo that offers the performer unique musical and technical challenges. Sagan’s message stressed the importance of compassion and preservation of our planet.
The piece draws its emotional thread from a quote by American astronomer Carl Sagan that accompanied the photo. Stopa notes that the image is at once humbling and awe-inspiring, highlighting the fleeting nature of human existence. Shot from four billion miles away, the photograph shows our home planet, Earth, as a tiny point of pale blue light, barely visible in the enormity of space. Pale Blue Dot by Alex Stopa is an advanced level four-mallet marimba solo based on the imagery of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
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