Cassini Saturn Photo To Feature A ‘Pale Blue Dot’
The Cassini spacecraft is set to snap another Saturn photo this weekend. Astronomers are more excited than usual, however, since this weekend’s picture will also feature a pale blue dot known as earth.
According to CBS, Cassini will capture a giant mosaic of Saturn and all of its rings this weekend. And if you look closely, you should be able to see a tiny blue dot out there in the darkness of space behind the enormous planet.
Earth will be approximately 898 million miles away when Cassini captures its latest Saturn photo. According to Space.com, our home planet will show up in the picture no larger than a pixel or two.
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t go outside and smile for your first space photo. Carolyn Porco, leader of Cassini’s imaging team at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., is encouraging space lovers to go out and wave for their Saturn photographer.
Porco said: “I just thought it would be a fantastic moment, a fantastic opportunity, if we could do it again, do it right, make sure the pictures are the correct camera settings, correct filters, all that stuff, do it right and let everybody know in advance so this could become a kind of interplanetary salute between robot and maker.”
Cassinni will start taking pictures of Saturn at approximately 5:27 p.m. EDT and will finish shooting at around 5:42 p.m. EDT. So hurry up and go put on your favorite outfit for your intergalactic portrait.
The picture won’t be available until this weekend but you can see another “pale blue dot” photo below. Carl Sagan marveled at a shot taken by the Voyager Spacecraft in 1990.
