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NASA's Cassini Sends Back Stunning Photo of Saturn
NASA's Cassini Sends Back Stunning Photo of Saturn
Sep 20, 2024 10:47 AM

Saturn is by far the showiest, most photogenic planet in the solar system. With its striped surface, stunning set of rings and 62 moons, the sixth planet from the sun is a wonder to view, whether it’s through a telescope or in an image taken from space.

The latest such image is a rarity, a composite of photos taken by the spacecraft, part of a joint NASA mission with the European and Italian space agencies called Cassini-Huygens, which has been circling Saturn for nine years. The probe has produced hundreds of images of Saturn, but the newest, for the first time, also features several of the planet’s moons and rings, plus Venus, Mars and Earth and its moon.

The probe generally doesn’t take pictures facing Earth’s direction, due to fear of instrument damage from the sun’s rays, according to a NASA statement. But for this newly released image, Cassini hid in Saturn’s shadow, eclipsing the sun and allowing Cassini to take 323 images in about four hours. The resulting mosaic uses 141 of those to show Saturn in its natural colors, as human eyes would see it.

The image, with labels. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)

Before the photo was taken on July 19, NASA spread the word about the upcoming photo shoot, asking people worldwide to go outside, find Saturn in their slice of the sky and wave at the planet. This image marks the third time Earth has been imaged from the outer solar system, and the first time Earth has had advanced notice of its picture being taken from space.

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“In this one magnificent view, Cassini has delivered to us a universe of marvels,” Carolyn Porco, Cassini’s imaging team leader, said in the statement. “And it did so on a day people all over the world, in unison, smiled in celebration at the sheer joy of being alive on a pale blue dot.”

The term “pale blue dot” was coined by late astronomer Carl Sagan, who would have turned 79 last Sunday, Nov. 9. In 1990, Sagan, famed for his show Cosmos and his passion for communicating science to the public, convinced NASA to use its Voyager probe, then streaming past Saturn, to turn around and take the first ever photo of Earth from distant space. The resulting image — much like this one — showed Earth as a mere smudge of blue light against Saturn’s monstrous size, prompting Sagan’s now-famous commencement address, “Reflections on a Mote of Dust,” in which he on our planet’s apparent insignificance next to the looming beauty of Saturn.

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