The day when people knew that Earth was being photographed from outer space

NASA recently shared an image of Saturn on its Instagram handle. The image showed a large portion of the distant celestial body, its moon Mimas at a distance and the planet’s ring. It said that the image was captured by its Cassini spacecraft from around 5,76,000 miles (9,27,000 km) away. But for some, this is not the best photograph sent by Cassini.

July 19 marked the 10th anniversary of a rare image taken by the wide-angle camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The photo showed Saturn’s rings and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame.

“10 years ago today the Cassini spacecraft peered past Saturn’s rings and captured this image of a distant bluish planet and its moon. That’s Earth, seen from over 900 million miles away! #SmileYoureOnCassiniCamera,” NASA tweeted.

Why this image is important
The image holds significance because it was only the third time ever that Earth had been imaged from the outer solar system. The acquisition of this image also marked the first time that people of Earth knew in advance that their planet was being photographed.

NASA said that the image is only one footprint in a mosaic of 33 footprints covering the entire Saturn ring system (including Saturn itself). At each footprint, images were taken in different spectral filters for a total of 323 images. At that time it was the only wide-angle footprint that had the Earth-moon system in it.

In the image, the Earth is 898 million miles from the Cassini spacecraft. It appears as a blue dot at centre right, and the moon can be seen as a fainter protrusion off its right side.

You can see the annotated version and here’s the unannotated version. Click here for a closer look at Earth and moon. The other bright dots nearby are stars.

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NASA recently shared an image of Saturn on its Instagram handle. The image showed a large portion of the distant celestial body, its moon Mimas at a distance and the planet’s ring. It said that the image was captured by its Cassini spacecraft from around 5,76,000 miles (9,27,000 km) away. But for some, this is not the best photograph sent by Cassini.

July 19 marked the 10th anniversary of a rare image taken by the wide-angle camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The photo showed Saturn’s rings and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame.

“10 years ago today the Cassini spacecraft peered past Saturn’s rings and captured this image of a distant bluish planet and its moon. That’s Earth, seen from over 900 million miles away! #SmileYoureOnCassiniCamera,” NASA tweeted.

Why this image is important
The image holds significance because it was only the third time ever that Earth had been imaged from the outer solar system. The acquisition of this image also marked the first time that people of Earth knew in advance that their planet was being photographed.

NASA said that the image is only one footprint in a mosaic of 33 footprints covering the entire Saturn ring system (including Saturn itself). At each footprint, images were taken in different spectral filters for a total of 323 images. At that time it was the only wide-angle footprint that had the Earth-moon system in it.

In the image, the Earth is 898 million miles from the Cassini spacecraft. It appears as a blue dot at centre right, and the moon can be seen as a fainter protrusion off its right side.

You can see the annotated version and here’s the unannotated version. Click here for a closer look at Earth and moon. The other bright dots nearby are stars.

FacebookTwitterLinkedin

end of article