Posted Oct 17, 2006 at 05:59PM by Victor B. Listed in: Astronomy, NASA, Celestial Bodies, Space Missions Tags: Saturn, Cassini
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Exaggerated color contrast of Saturn. courtesy of NASA

It's beautiful, isn't it? This isn't an astronomical drawing of Trouvelot or a piece of artistry, and it isn't even our planet, but with the right frame of mind, it can be just as beautiful to our eyes and sensibilities as seeing our own planet from beyond the stars.


The above is a picture of Saturn (with some additional color contrasting for clarity's sake), taken by the Cassini space probe when it was inside Saturn's shadow. One thing you'll notice about this shot is how, given a change in perspective, we find that Saturn's rings illuminate the planet. In fact, some of these rings were previously undiscovered, revealed only by the pictures taken by Cassini. Something quite evident in this picture is the outermost ring, called the E-Ring, as it was created by the newly-discovered ice fountains of Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.

One other thing to note here: if you check the source and look at the higher-quality versions they have of this picture, look for a small dot on the upper left, just above Saturn's innermost rings. That's Earth, and as Carl Sagan put it, the "pale blue dot" we live on and call home. Funny how a change in perspective works, doesn't it?




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2 Comments


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   by deanspeed - 2006-10-18
 » where?

where is the source?


   Re: dnk668 (Unregistered) - 2006-10-28
 » source?

yea, source isnt stated


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