Blue Marble

Every time I see a new picture from the Mars rover Curiosity, I sit in awe of a planet that used to look like Earth.  It would have been fun to have been on Mars and to have watched the Earth during one of its pre-human stages, maybe the solid ice stage.  Our blue marble would have looked entirely white.  Or maybe the greenhouse stage when there was absolutely no ice covering the poles.  Or maybe it could have been after the eruption of Mount Toba 75,000 years ago.  A black cloud encircled the entire Earth and wiped out 75% of all life.  Human life was down to around 10,000 living souls.  Or maybe it could have been the original cooling of the planet before it had water and a spin.

But, I can't, of course.  My time is for the blue marble stage.  It's beautiful enough, but I think I have missed out on something magnificent.  I find myself in that position sometimes.