Earth from Saturn! - The Point

The Point.fr – Published on 23/07/2013 at 16:13 – Edited on 23/07/2013 16:19

The U.S. space agency has released a photo Tuesday of the Earth and Moon taken from a novel point of view, close to Saturn and its rings, one single shot . The image, in color, was taken by the Cassini spacecraft at about 1.4 billion miles from Earth, according to NASA. At this distance, while the rings of Saturn are very recognizable, the Earth is only a small point of light in the background. “This is the first time with this photo dated July 19, we knew in advance that the Earth is photographed from an interplanetary distance,” said Nasa. “This is the first time that the camera resolution Cassini takes the Earth and the Moon as two distinct objects,” added the U.S. space agency.

unusual angle of view was made possible thanks to the fact that the sun was behind Saturn, from the point of view of the probe. The planet has blocked most of the light, which would otherwise have been so intense that it would damage the sensor of the camera. This photo is all the more amazing it was taken with a camera from the 1990s (the probe was launched in 1997), nearly as sharp and sophisticated than current optical instruments.

“You can not see the continents or people on this portrait of the Earth, but this little blue dot is a brief summary of where we were on July 19,” said Linda Spilker, scientist working on the Cassini spacecraft. “The Cassini images remind us how our planet is tiny in the universe,” she added. The Cassini spacecraft was launched October 15, 1997 to study Saturn and its many satellites. She came close to the ringed planet in 2004 after also being passed near Jupiter.

Earth is a small bright spot highlighted by the arrow in the bottom right of this photo. Above, the majestic rings of Saturn © Nasa / AFP