Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Could Cassini See You On “The Day The Earth Smiled?”

Could Cassini See You On “The Day The Earth Smiled?” :

The face of Earth aimed toward Cassini during imaging on July 19, 2013
The face of Earth aimed toward Cassini during imaging on July 19, 2013
So along with the rest of the world, you smiled. You waved. You went outside on July 19, wherever you were, and looked upwards and out into the solar system knowing that our robotic representative Cassini would be capturing a few pixels’ worth of photons bouncing off our planet when they eventually reached Saturn, 900 million miles away. But did Cassini actually capture any photons coming from where you were? The image above will tell you.
Assembled by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo (where the enormous 305-meter radio telescope is located) this image shows what side of Earth was facing Cassini when its “pale blue dot” images were obtained, at approximately 22:47 UTC (Cassini time.)
Didn’t make it into Cassini’s photo? That’s ok… maybe MESSENGER had already caught you earlier that very same day:
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Read the rest of Could Cassini See You On “The Day The Earth Smiled?” (306 words)

© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. |Permalink |8 comments |
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