Pale Blue Dot: Distant Spacecraft Photograph Earth   
       
   July 23, 2013:  Color and black-and-white images of Earth taken by two NASA   
   interplanetary spacecraft on July 19 show our planet and its moon as bright   
   beacons from millions of miles away in space.   
       
   NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured the color images of Earth and the moon from   
   its perch in the Saturn system nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion   
   kilometers) away. MESSENGER, the first probe to orbit Mercury, took a   
   black-and-white image from a distance of 61 million miles (98 million   
   kilometers) as part of a campaign to search for natural satellites of the   
   planet.   
       
   http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2013/07/23/splash.jpg   
       
   In this rare image taken on July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on NASA's   
   Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn's rings and Earth in the same frame.   
   Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Larger image   
       
   In the Cassini images Earth and the moon appear as mere dots -- Earth a pale   
   blue and the moon a stark white, visible between Saturn's rings. It was the   
   first time Cassini's highest-resolution camera captured Earth and its moon as   
   two distinct objects.   
       
   It also marked the first time people on Earth had advance notice their   
   planet's portrait was being taken from interplanetary distances. NASA invited   
   the public to celebrate by finding Saturn in their part of the sky, waving at   
   the ringed planet and sharing pictures over the Internet. More than 20,000   
   people around the world participated.   
       
   "We can't see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but   
   this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19," said   
   Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory   
   in Pasadena, Calif. "Cassini's picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is   
   in the vastness of space, and also testifies to the ingenuity of the citizens   
   of this tiny planet to send a robotic spacecraft so far away from home to   
   study Saturn and take a look-back photo of Earth."   
       
   Pictures of Earth from the outer solar system are rare because from that   
   distance, Earth appears very close to our sun. A camera's sensitive detectors   
   can be damaged by looking directly at the sun, just as a human being can   
   damage his or her retina by doing the same. Cassini was able to take this   
   image because the sun had temporarily moved behind Saturn from the   
   spacecraft's point of view and most of the light was blocked.   
       
   http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2013/07/23/earthandmoon_med.jpg   
       
   [NOTE I don't believe that's the Earth's moon - I think it's Mars]   
       
   Cameras on NASA's Cassini spacecraft photographed Earth and its moon from   
   Saturn orbit on July 19, 2013. Larger image   
       
   A wide-angle image of Earth will become part of a multi-image picture, or   
   mosaic, of Saturn's rings, which scientists are assembling. This image is not   
   expected to be available for several weeks because of the time-consuming   
   challenges involved in blending images taken in changing geometry and at   
   vastly different light levels, with faint and extraordinarily bright targets   
   side by side.   
       
   "It thrills me to no end that people all over the world took a break from   
   their normal activities to go outside and celebrate the interplanetary salute   
   between robot and maker that these images represent," said Carolyn Porco,   
   Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.   
   "The whole event underscores for me our 'coming of age' as planetary   
   explorers."   
       
   In the MESSENGER image, Earth and the moon are less than a pixel, but appear   
   very large because they are overexposed. Long exposures are required to   
   capture as much light as possible from potentially dim objects. Consequently,   
   bright objects in the field of view become saturated and appear artificially   
   large. (To view the MESSENGER images, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/16Vnt5G)   
       
   "That images of our planet have been acquired on a single day from two distant   
   solar system outposts reminds us of this nation's stunning technical   
   accomplishments in planetary exploration," said MESSENGER Principal   
   Investigator Sean Solomon of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth   
   Observatory in Palisades, N.Y. "And because Mercury and Saturn are such   
   different outcomes of planetary formation and evolution, these two images also   
   highlight what is special about Earth. There's no place like home."   
       
   Credits:   
       
   Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
       
   More information:   
       
   The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European   
   Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL designed, developed and   
   assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras. The Johns Hopkins   
   University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., designed and built   
   MESSENGER, a spacecraft developed under NASA's Discovery Program. NASA's   
   Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the program for the   
   agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL and APL manage their   
   respective missions for NASA. The California Institute of Technology in   
   Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.94   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)