The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. JPL and APL manage their respective missions for NASA. See our, Read a limited number of articles each month, You consent to the use of cookies and tracking by us and third parties to provide you with personalized ads, Unlimited access to washingtonpost.com on any device, Unlimited access to all Washington Post apps, No on-site advertising or third-party ad tracking. Cameras on NASA's Cassini spacecraft photographed Earth and its moon from Saturn orbit on July 19, 2013. MESSENGER, the first probe to orbit Mercury, took a black-and-white image from a distance of 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) as part of a campaign to search for natural satellites of the planet. In the MESSENGER image, Earth and the moon are less than a pixel, but appear very large because they are overexposed. Cassini operates too far from the sun to be powered by solar panels. You can unsubscribe at any time. The Cassini team ultimately stitched together 141 photos into a sweeping view of Saturn, a … There's no place like home. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras. But the craft has, this week, sent back a beautiful new picture of the Earth, glimpsed through Saturn's rings. The images are the first to show Saturn's moons and rings, Earth, Venus and Mars all in one shot, with others showing just a few. ", When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Cassini-Huygens: 3000x1266x3: PIA22766: Cassini orbiting Saturn (Illustration) Full Resolution: TIFF (9.183 MB) JPEG (213.6 kB) 2018-09-24: Titan: Cassini-Huygens: Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer: 13008x9984x3: PIA22484: The picture of Earth wasn't the only image taken that day. Instead, Cassini will be piloted directly into the surface of the gas giant on September 15, 2017. A camera's sensitive detectors can be damaged by looking directly at the sun, just as a human being can damage his or her retina by doing the same. Cassini's mission is drawing to an end, as NASA prepares to crash it into the surface of Saturn itself. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. It also marked the first time people on Earth had advance notice their planet's portrait was being taken from interplanetary distances. It was the first time Cassini's highest-resolution camera captured Earth and its moon as two distinct objects. This image is not expected to be available for several weeks because of the time-consuming challenges involved in blending images taken in changing geometry and at vastly different light levels, with faint and extraordinarily bright targets side by side. We rely on readers like you to uphold a free press. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "It thrills me to no end that people all over the world took a break from their normal activities to go outside and celebrate the interplanetary salute between robot and maker that these images represent," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. "The whole event underscores for me our 'coming of age' as planetary explorers." One of the most interesting discoveries was made earlier this month, when Cassini confirmed that hydrogen gas exists on Saturn's moon Enceladus. By clicking “I agree” below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. "What we learn from Cassini’s daring final orbits will further our understanding of how giant planets, and planetary systems everywhere, form and evolve. Diving between Saturn's rings will start on April 26 and the little spaceship will be taking pictures of whatever it can as it passes through the giant sheets of icy debris. What are the characteristics of the Solar System? NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured the color images of Earth and the moon from its perch in the Saturn system nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away. Instead, it draws its power from radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. April's stunning 'Pink Moon' rises this week - but what is it and why does it occur?
