Earth Between the Rings of Saturn



This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows planet Earth as a point of light between the icy rings of Saturn.

The spacecraft captured the view on April 12, 2017 at 10:41 p.m. PDT (1:41 a.m. EDT). Cassini was 870 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) away from Earth when the image was taken. Although far too small to be visible in the image, the part of Earth facing toward Cassini at the time was the southern Atlantic Ocean.

Earth's moon is also visible to the left of our planet in a cropped, zoomed-in version of the image.

The rings visible here are the A ring (at top) with the Keeler and Encke gaps visible, and the F ring (at bottom). During this observation Cassini was looking toward the backlit rings, making a mosaic of multiple images, with the sun blocked by the disk of Saturn.

Seen from Saturn, Earth and the other inner solar system planets are all close to the sun, and are easily captured in such images, although these opportunities have been somewhat rare during the mission. The F ring appears especially bright in this viewing geometry.

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7656/

cool pic

Makes you feel a little insignificant.

Looks like Saturn viewed from behind my window blinds.

... what we do in our backwater system on the edge of the spiral arm, is insignificant to the rest of the universe(s).

I'm sure there are "those" out there that laugh at us!

Found earth in the photograph by trying to wipe a spec off of my tablet screen!
We are a spec in the solar system, not even a spec in the Milky Way galaxy, and the Milky Way is a minor blob in the universe.
Does put life in perspective!
Thanks for posting!

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
I'm sure there are "those" out there that laugh at us!

They would first have to know that we exist. Our humble solar system is far from any other intelligent life that certainly exists.

Crap, looks like I forgot to roll up the garden hose again...

Reminds me of Carl Sagan's "Pale blue dot."

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
I'm sure there are "those" out there that laugh at us!

They would first have to know that we exist. Our humble solar system is far from any other intelligent life that certainly exists.

And we advertise our existence by shooting hardware off into space. Littering up the solar system one trillion dollar project at a time. Wonder how freaked out we'd be if a Cassini craft did a fly by of our little blue dot in space?

This Hubble photo always blows me away when I see it. Those are all galaxies billions of light-years away.



Jim

quote:

billions of light-years away.

did you mean billions and billions ?

yeah so? Saturn is full of hot air anyway, just like us humans..

We might only be a speck, but we're the best damn speck in the universe! Yeah earth power!

Jimbo,
What really blows me away about this image (which is cropped at the top and bottom BTW) is, according to NASA's caption on their web site, that its perspective is as if you held a nickel at arms length looking at the thin edge out toward space. That is how small a slice of the universe it represents...mind boggling...

Also, great image of our tiny planet WCB.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
This Hubble photo always blows me away when I see it. Those are all galaxies billions of light-years away.



Jim

Fat finger error...Still, 2 great images.

If the sun were 3 inches in diameter and located in Dallas, the Earth would be a grain of sand, Jupiter 117.4 feet away from Earth and the nearest star in Boston.

So yes, it is all about Dallas being the center of everything.

^^^^^^^^
Truth.