Talk:2906: Earth

I originally read the caption as "how badly we'd messed up", which... changes Sagan's tone somewhat. 172.71.155.54 08:02, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

At first I thought the joke was that the rocket firing had somehow gone so catastrophically badly that the entire Earth had literally been reduced to dust. Fabian42 (talk) 08:37, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

I also had this notion at first. That after the failed burn Earth had been destroyed... But I think not so anymore. So thx explain xkcd. ;-) --Kynde (talk) 12:43, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

So, according to explainxkcd, that’s a square “spacecraft window”?? Why have we never seen a square spacecraft window in any other context, ever? Did Randall screw up that badly in the original comic, or was it a previous explainxkcd editor who screwed up here? 172.70.214.60 08:58, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you're on about and why anyone has to have screwed up. Why can't it be a rectangular (we don't know it's square) spacecraft window? Bischoff (talk) 09:53, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

This is very clearly a triangle shaped window in a very elongated spaceship Whimsical (talk) 11:24, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

Maybe it is part of a huge spider-shaped window? (I home people here will remember that meta-reference to What If) 172.71.94.208 12:28, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

This picture from the Cupola module of the ISS has trapeze like windows. But the one behind the astronaut could easily have been a rectangle from what can be seen in the picture. So to argue that this window could not have been shot the same is just silly. Of course it was important to the joke that you did not realize it was a window until reading the caption. Also if this space craft has held up to go so far form Earth with living inhabitants it is obviously not a space ship in use today! --Kynde (talk) 12:43, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

There is precedent with the Space Shuttle (aft flight-deck window, others were round, the 'forward flight-deck' ones were of course the main flight/piloting ones with awkward quadrilateral shapes and pesky instrument panels where none are in the comic). The windows in the Shuttle were actually a weight issue (certainly, at first, they were plain (chunky!) glass, and added a lot of weight to the design.

Also look at Blue Origin's capsule for more current design that could end up eventually on an orbital/extra-orbital vessel. Although Crew Dragon is more conservative, and Orion's interior looks like it isn't so big (while Starship's eventual window configuration might eventually be vastly more conservative than the Dan Dare/Flash Gordon aesthetic of the concept imagery).

So... Possible, but depends upon the design needs for the craft (fully space-capable whilst intended to undergo re-entry, is all we really know). 172.70.90.92 16:13, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

In my mind is the scene in C.S. Lewis's religious novel Out of the Silent Planet, where an English philologist, Ransom, is abducted by criminals into outer space and meets aliens. In chapter fifteen, a wise sorn tries to figure out which planet Ransom is from. Probably Thulcandra, the garbage planet of the Solar System. Ransom doesn't like the sound of that, but the sorn gets out something that isn't a telescope and he shows Thulcandra to Ransom, and yup, that's us. Lewis writes it better. I don't know if Carl Sagan had read this. --Robert Carnegie [email protected] 141.101.99.75 13:12, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

Hoo boy, yep that book (and its sequel) are beyond even Narnia in their religious symbolism (though the later environmentalist movements could definitely find an allegory in them, too, not sure how intended that was, in CSL's time, some time before a practical Gaia Hypothesis/etc). I can imagine Randall knows of the book (though clearly more influenced by Sagan in a direct lineage). Not entirely sure Sagan will have taken interest in that genre, nor taken the above to heart. Probably no more than his genuine scientific and rhetoric interests, which may be sufficient genesis for his own coined meme. But that's just my gut feeling. i.e. Worthy of note, but not directly (or singly-indirectly) connected. 172.70.85.153 14:20, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

The color for the blue dot seems to be around #B6C8EB. --1234231587678 (talk) 15:18, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

Zooming in, the central pixel is definitely #ABBBDC (a very easy color to hand type), with some artifacts around it of varying shades of grey. 172.69.59.184 20:58, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

I think we're discussing different versions of the two images. The single central pixel of the dot in the "regular-sized" image on the xkcd site, "earth.png" (364 x 472 pixels), is now #B5C6E9, while the six central pixels in the 2x image, "earth_2x.png" (728 x 945 pixels), are #BDCFF4. The "regular-sized" version here, "363px-earth_2x.png" (363 x 471 pixels) has a single central pixel, #ABBBDC, while the large image on *this* site, "545px-earth_2x.png" (545 x 707 pixels), has two central pixels, #BDCFF4. BunsenH (talk) 22:33, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

I'd say he nailed Sagan's hair... Inexplicable (talk) 19:11, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

Carl may *claim* to have messed up, but I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't aim the rocket for deep space, given half a chance.