NASA Releases Stunning New Image of Saturn
- 11 years ago
A new image of the planet Saturn has just been released by NASA. The photo was taken by the spacecraft Cassini in July of this year, during a project called 'The Day The Earth Smiled'.
A new stunning image of the planet Saturn has just been released by NASA.
The photo was taken by the spacecraft Cassini in July of this year, during a project called The Day The Earth Smiled.
Dr Carolyn Porco, one of the leads on the project stated “On 19 July, an array of overlapping images framing Saturn, its entire ring system and a host of its moons was acquired while Cassini was deep in the shadow created by the planet's eclipse of the Sun.”
Although the main goal was to catch a sight of planet Earth in its entirety,from billions of miles away, the location of the Cassini spacecraft along with the sun and Saturn provided a very rare chance to catch a snapshot of the planets in close proximity to the sun.
In the image, Saturn can be seen backlit by the sun. Numerous moons were also captured in the shot and all but one of the planet’s rings was caught. The beautiful photo is a mosaic comprised of over 140 wide angle, natural color snapshots taken by Cassini.
The finished picture was put together to mimic how naked human eye would have seen Saturn on July 19th.
A new stunning image of the planet Saturn has just been released by NASA.
The photo was taken by the spacecraft Cassini in July of this year, during a project called The Day The Earth Smiled.
Dr Carolyn Porco, one of the leads on the project stated “On 19 July, an array of overlapping images framing Saturn, its entire ring system and a host of its moons was acquired while Cassini was deep in the shadow created by the planet's eclipse of the Sun.”
Although the main goal was to catch a sight of planet Earth in its entirety,from billions of miles away, the location of the Cassini spacecraft along with the sun and Saturn provided a very rare chance to catch a snapshot of the planets in close proximity to the sun.
In the image, Saturn can be seen backlit by the sun. Numerous moons were also captured in the shot and all but one of the planet’s rings was caught. The beautiful photo is a mosaic comprised of over 140 wide angle, natural color snapshots taken by Cassini.
The finished picture was put together to mimic how naked human eye would have seen Saturn on July 19th.