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> Backlit Saturn seen by Cassini

Backlit Saturn seen by Cassini

author: Nasa/JPL/SSI/Novapix

reference: a-sat05-10070

Image Size 300 DPI: 76 * 29 cm

On July 19, 2013, NASA's Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings -- and, in the background, our home planet, Earth. With both Cassini's wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras aimed at Saturn, Cassini was able to capture 323 images in just over four hours. This final mosaic uses 141 of those wide-angle images. Images taken using the red, green and blue spectral filters of the wide-angle camera were combined and mosaicked together to create this natural-color view. This image spans about 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across. In the lower right of the mosaic, in between the bright blue E ring and the faint but defined G ring, is the pale blue dot of our planet, Earth. Earth's twin, Venus, appears as a bright white dot in the upper left quadrant of the mosaic, also between the G and E rings. Mars also appears as a faint red dot embedded in the outer edge of the E ring, above and to the left of Venus. Cassini was approximately 746,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn when the images in this mosaic were taken.

Keywords for this photo:

2013 - ASTRONOMY - CASSINI - EARTH - EARTH FROM SPACE - ENCELADUS - EPIMETHEUS - GLOBAL VIEW - JANUS - MARS - MIMAS - NIGHT - PANDORA - PLANET - POSTER - PROMETHEUS - RING - SATURN - SHADOW - TETHYS - VENUS -