Get Ready for a LARGE Group Picture!

On July 19 from 21:27 to 21:42 UTC, 5:27 to 5:42 EDT, 2:27 to 2:42 PDT—a period of about 15 minutes) the Cassini spacecraft circling Saturn is going to take an image of Saturn with Earth in the scene.  That means we’ll ALL be in the picture, as seen from a distance of 1.44 billion kilometers!  So, wherever you are, take a few minutes to get outside and wave in the direction of Saturn. Yes, it will be during the day for some of us, but you can still find out about where to look in the sky from this useful blog entry by Jane Houston Jones.

The Cassini Solstice mission’s main goal for this image is to study the very diffuse rings of ice and dust particles that surround Saturn. The best way to do this is to look at stars as their light twinkles through the rings. The mission team members will analyze visual and infrared light data collected by the spacecraft’s instruments and cameras. The spacecraft is at just the right distance and viewing angle to make a high-resolution mosaic of the planet and rings, and in that mosaic, Earth will appear as a small blue dot in the distance.

There’s been only one other chance to image Earth from the outer solar system in such a way. In fact, there have been only two images of Earth from the outer solar system. The first and most distant was one was taken 23 years ago by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft from a distance of 6 billion kilometers. That image became known as the “Pale Blue Dot” view, memorialized by Carl Sagan in his book of the same name.  Cassini took the other image in 2006. So, if you’re out and about on July 19th, take a few moments to wave at Saturn and be part of the largest group picture of recent times. And, no photobombing!