OH man, that is awesome; what a statement from Carl Sagan! I think I've heard it in part, but never seen it written down like that as a whole, so thank you so much for posting.
Funnily enough, I was talking with someone the other day about Voyager 1, about how it's been travelling for most of my life, at a speed of circa 40k mph, and it was only last year that it apparently left our solar system.
However, I wanted to ask; does that include the Kuiper belt do you know; or do we technically call this our solar system? It's not the Oort cloud is it?
I just wonder, because I vaguely remember watching something about the Kuiper belt being as wide as our solar system, so it essentially doubles its size.
As far as that picture is concerned, I could stare at it all day and night; as Sagan says, a truly humbling experience.
Cg
I love staring at that image Cg... it's humbling to have that kind of perspective and for Sagan to have articulated its importance so eloquently.
To your point, i believe the Oort Cloud actually encompasses the Kuiper belt (which is also huge but actually overlaps with our solar system, I believe it is something equivalent to the width of our solar system).. the Oort Cloud is really super massive!
So eloquently!
I wonder then, if we can truly say Voyager has left the solar system; surely the Kuiper and the Oort, are being held in place because of the gravity of our sun, no?
I kind of like to think of Voyager still within the confines of our system, even though it has been travelling all these years. Are you a Star Trek fan by the way? Do you remember V-ger? :-)
Cg