Envirocast® On-Line Feature of the Week -- January 25, 2007


 Earth from Saturn's Shadow
 

The images in this Envirocast® are a composite (layered image) made from 165 images taken by the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006.  The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency.

This images were taken during a time when the Cassini spacecraft was in the shadow of Saturn, with the position of the Sun behind the planet.

Earth View from Saturn

Credit: CICLOPS

The image above is of the planet Saturn and its famous rings.  Earth is the small dot you can see under the first ring separated from the bunch.

Zoom In: A Closer Look


Credit: CICLOPS

A closer view where Earth is more clearly visible.

Related Information:

  • When Cassini took this image, the spacecraft was looking back at Saturn from a distance of about about 1.3 million miles, and Earth in this image is almost a billion miles away.

  • The Cassini spacecraft's position in Saturn's shadow let it capture the planet's rings like never before and even revealed previously unknown faint rings.

  • Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. It is a gas giant and the second-largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter. Saturn has a prominent system of rings, consisting mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust.

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