This image was snapped by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013. The view of Earth (upper left) was taken at the same time from the geostationary weather satellite, GOES-East.
"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
— Carl Sagan
#NoPlaceLikeHome
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / PHL @ UPR Arecibo / NERC Satellite Station / Dundee University / Val Klavans
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Tags: #NoPlaceLikeHome earth daytheearthsmiled saturn planet waveatsaturn wave pale blue dot cassini cassini mission nasa jpl ssi iss Planetary planetary science rings solar system space Astronomy Astrobiology spacecraft july 19 2013 earthday day carl sagan val valerie klavans imaging science subsystem
Cassini observed Uranus near Saturn's rings on April 11, 2014!
This composite image was taken by the Cassini spacecraft on April 11, 2014 and processed by Ian Regan. Montage by Val Klavans.
Initially posted to: "Titan Saturn's Moon" on Facebook
Tags: uranus saturn planet rings cassini cassini mission f ring f-ring nasa jpl ssi iss imaging science subsystem planetary science space Astronomy solar system april 11 2014 ian regan val valerie klavans
This is an approximate true color view of Saturn. Shadows of Saturn’s rings are cast upon the planet (below the rings to the lower right). Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus also appears to the lower right of this image.
This composite is made of images that were taken by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on March 7, 2015 and received on Earth March 9, 2015. The camera was pointing toward UNK (Saturn's moon Unk must have been behind Saturn at the time these images were taken), and the images were taken using the blue, methane band, and continuum band filters.
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans
about.me/valerieklavans
Tags: saturn cassini cassini mission rings ring shadows Enceladus space spacecraft planet solar system solar system planetary science Planetary Astronomy science imaging science subsystem iss nasa jpl ssi val valerie klavans
IR-G-UV Color Composite of Dione in front of Saturn
from Enceladus 'E-19' Flyby
These images were taken on May 02, 2012 and received on Earth May 03, 2012. The camera was pointing toward DIONE at approximately 74,264 to 74,268 kilometers away, and the images were taken using the CL1, IR1, GRN, and UV3 filters.
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / color composite by Val Klavans
This image was featured on Titan Saturn's Moon on Facebook here: on.fb.me/Ntm4hH
Tags: Cassini Huygens Astronomy Planetary Science Astrobiology Moon Solar System 2012 Color Composite RGB Saturn Planet Dione Rings Raw Image val valerie klavans filter may nasa jpl ssi mission
This is an approximate true color view of Saturn and its moon Titan. Titan is seen here hovering near Saturn's rings.
This composite is made of images that were taken by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on May 22, 2015 and received on Earth May 24, 2015. The camera was pointing toward Titan and Saturn, and the images were taken using the green, violet, and infrared filters.
Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans
about.me/valerieklavans
Tags: cassini mission solar system planetary science imaging science subsystem titan moon saturn planet haze atmosphere orange green violet infrared cassini spacecraft mission nasa jpl ssi iss val valerie klavans may 22 2015 space astronomy astrobiology