The View from Saturn

This image was taken by Cassini, the amazing spacecraft that has been orbiting Saturn and its Moons for a decade. This image shows a view toward the Sun from Saturn – the most distant planet normally visible with the naked eye. As well as showing Saturn’s rings in all their glory, several of Saturn’s moons are visible in this shot. Perhaps more amazingly though, the Earth and Moon are seen as a bright spot in the lower-right and Mars and Venus can be seen in the top-left. On July 19th 2013 the world was asked to wave at Saturn as this image was taken (and many people did).

If you want to feel humanity’s astronomical significance to its fullest just think of this photo, and then think of what it took to be able to obtain it. An amazing achievement for the Cassini team.

[Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI]