Did you wave and smile at Saturn last week, at the time when NASA’s Cassini probe was taking a picture of us? (As for myself, I think my eyes were closed.)
If you weren’t at the photo-op, here’s a recap. On July 19, in the mid-afternoon (Pacific Daylight Time), NASA’s Cassini probe captured a picture of the Earth and moon from 900 million miles away at Saturn. NASA took advantage of Cassini’s projected passage through the shadow of Saturn to take a color image of home without the sun getting in Cassini’s high-resolution eye. And, being a well-timed and expected event, they let us know about it in advance — affording us the opportunity to become part of photographic history…sort of.
Our instructions were to run outside at the appointed time, turn to Saturn’s position in the sky and wave for one big group photo of humanity (or the 20,000+ who actually looked that way and smiled). Don’t worry that at Cassini’s great distance, Earth isn’t even as large as a camera pixel in the shot; enthusiastic posers can revel in the knowledge that we can pinpoint exactly where we were and what we were doing at the time the picture was taken.
This photo-op event was pitched to us as a chance to run outside and do something fun and historical, in concert with like-minded enthusiasts all over the world and to put the Earth and moon into a perspective we don’t usually think much of: all of humanity and life as we know it are living on a mere dot in space.
What it did for me, however, was to remind me that Cassini is still out there exploring the distant reaches of the solar system.