NGC 6543, nicknamed the 'Cat's Eye Nebula'. Estimated to be 1000 years old, the nebula is a visual fossil record of the dynamics and late evolution of a dying star. Photograph: NASA/ESA
This video, inspired by the words of the astrophysicist, storyteller and humanist Carl Sagan, mixes NASA's photographs of our cosmos with pictures of world religious and political leaders and in its final moments, some of the grotesque consequences of their actions.
It is intended to humble viewers into appreciating just what a tiny, lonely and unique place our planet is, presumably with a mind to galvanise us into some positive ecological action. To be honest, I found it a little too earnest and sentimental.
But it did have the very useful effect of taking me to NASA's mind-blowing Hubble Telescope site, which in turn reminded me of the words of Sagan: "We are the way for the cosmos to know itself".
