The Day the Earth Smiled

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The fully processed composite photograph of Saturn taken by Cassini on July 19, 2013 The Day the Earth Smiled - PIA17172.jpg
The fully processed composite photograph of Saturn taken by Cassini on July 19, 2013
Earth can be seen as a blue dot underneath the rings of Saturn. The Day The Earth Smiled - Preview.jpg
Earth can be seen as a blue dot underneath the rings of Saturn.
The photomosaic from NASA's "Wave at Saturn" campaign. The collage includes some 1,600 photos taken by members of the public on The Day the Earth Smiled. The Faces of 'Wave at Saturn'.jpg
The photomosaic from NASA's "Wave at Saturn" campaign. The collage includes some 1,600 photos taken by members of the public on The Day the Earth Smiled.

The Day the Earth Smiled is a composite photograph taken by the NASA spacecraft Cassini on July 19, 2013. During an eclipse of the Sun, the spacecraft turned to image Saturn and most of its visible ring system, as well as Earth and the Moon as distant pale dots. The spacecraft had twice taken similar photographs (in 2006 and 2012) in its previous nine years in orbit around the planet. The name also refers to the activities associated with the event, as well as to the photographic mosaic created from it. [1]

Contents

Conceived by the planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, the imaging team leader for Cassini, the concept called for the people of the world to reflect on their place in the universe, to marvel at life on Earth, and, at the time the pictures were taken, to look up and smile in celebration. [2] [3]

The final mosaic captured on July 19, processed at the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS), was released to the public on November 12, 2013. [4] [5] The photograph includes Earth, Mars, Venus, and many Saturnian moons. [6] A higher-resolution image, depicting Earth and the Moon as distinct points of light, was taken with Cassini's narrow-angle camera and was released shortly afterwards.

Events

The Cassini probe took images of Earth and the Moon from close to a billion miles away at 21:27 UTC, July 19, 2013. A number of activities were planned to celebrate the occasion:

Results

Raw images from Cassini were received on Earth shortly after the event, and a couple of processed images—a high-resolution image of the Earth and the Moon, and a small portion of the final wide-angle mosaic showing the Earth—were released to the public a few days following the July 19 imaging sequence. [11] [12]

Processing of the full mosaic took place at CICLOPS under Porco's direction over the course of approximately two months. [13] During the four hours it took Cassini to image the entire 647,808 kilometres (402,529 mi)-wide scene, the spacecraft captured a total of 323 images, 141 of which were used in the mosaic. [6] NASA revealed that this imaging marked the first time four planets – Saturn, Earth, Mars, and Venus – had been captured at once in visible light by the Cassini craft. [14] It was also the first time the people of Earth knew in advance that their picture would be taken from the outer Solar System. [3]

NASA's official release of the final The Day the Earth Smiled mosaic on November 12, 2013, was met with much fanfare in news media outlets around the world. [4] [5] [15] [16] [17] The image graced the front page of The New York Times the following day. [18] [19] Public figures including media producer Seth MacFarlane lauded the image. [20] The mosaic was also presented by Carolyn Porco, and dedicated to the late astronomer Carl Sagan, at a ceremony at the Library of Congress in honor of its acquisition of Sagan's papers. [21] In addition, a collage of images submitted by 1,600 members of the public to NASA's Wave at Saturn campaign was released on November 12. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saturn</span> Sixth planet from the Sun

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about nine times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter, Saturn has less than a third the mass of Jupiter. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km), with an orbital period of 29.45 years.

<i>Cassini–Huygens</i> NASA/ESA mission sent to study Saturn and its moons (1997–2017)

Cassini–Huygens, commonly called Cassini, was a space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites. The Flagship-class robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA's Cassini space probe and ESA's Huygens lander, which landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit, where it stayed from 2004 to 2017. The two craft took their names from the astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iapetus (moon)</span> Moon of Saturn

Iapetus is the outermost of Saturn's large moons. With an estimated diameter of 1,469 km (913 mi), it is the third-largest moon of Saturn and the eleventh-largest in the Solar System. Named after the Titan Iapetus, the moon was discovered in 1671 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pandora (moon)</span> Moon of Saturn

Pandora is an inner satellite of Saturn. It was discovered in 1980 from photos taken by the Voyager 1 probe and was provisionally designated S/1980 S 26. In late 1985, it was officially named after Pandora from Greek mythology. It is also designated as Saturn XVII.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Himalia (moon)</span> Moon of Jupiter (Jupiter VI)

Himalia, also known as Jupiter VI, is the largest irregular satellite of Jupiter. With a diameter of at least 140 km (90 mi), it is the sixth largest Jovian satellite, after the four Galilean moons and Amalthea. It was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at the Lick Observatory on 3 December 1904 and is named after the nymph Himalia, who bore three sons of Zeus. It is one of the largest planetary moons in the Solar System not imaged in detail, and the third largest not imaged in detail within the orbit of Neptune.

Timeline of <i>Cassini–Huygens</i>

This article provides a timeline of the Cassini–Huygens mission. Cassini was a collaboration between the United States' NASA, the European Space Agency ("ESA"), and the Italian Space Agency ("ASI") to send a probe to study the Saturnian system, including the planet, its rings, and its natural satellites. The Flagship-class uncrewed robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA's Cassini probe, and ESA's Huygens lander which was designed to land on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit. The craft were named after astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moons of Saturn</span> Natural satellites of the planet Saturn

The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets only tens of meters across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. There are 146 moons with confirmed orbits, the most of any planet in the solar system. This number does not include the many thousands of moonlets embedded within Saturn's dense rings, nor hundreds of possible kilometer-sized distant moons that have been observed on single occasions. Seven Saturnian moons are large enough to have collapsed into a relaxed, ellipsoidal shape, though only one or two of those, Titan and possibly Rhea, are currently in hydrostatic equilibrium. Three moons are particularly notable. Titan is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, with a nitrogen-rich Earth-like atmosphere and a landscape featuring river networks and hydrocarbon lakes. Enceladus emits jets of ice from its south-polar region and is covered in a deep layer of snow. Iapetus has contrasting black and white hemispheres as well as an extensive ridge of equatorial mountains among the tallest in the solar system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Methone (moon)</span> Moon of Saturn

Methone is a small, egg-shaped natural satellite of Saturn that orbits out past Saturn's ring system, between the orbits of Mimas and Enceladus. It was discovered in 2004, though it wasn't until 2012 that it was imaged in detail by the Cassini spacecraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pallene (moon)</span> Moon of Saturn

Pallene is a very small natural satellite of Saturn. It is one of three small moons known as the Alkyonides that lie between the orbits of the larger Mimas and Enceladus. It is also designated Saturn XXXIII.

<i>Pale Blue Dot</i> Photograph of Earth by Voyager 1

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolyn Porco</span> American planetary scientist

Carolyn C. Porco is an American planetary scientist who explores the outer Solar System, beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. She led the imaging science team on the Cassini mission in orbit around Saturn. She is an expert on planetary rings and the Saturnian moon, Enceladus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daphnis (moon)</span> Moon of Saturn

Daphnis is an inner satellite of Saturn. It is also known as Saturn XXXV; its provisional designation was S/2005 S 1. Daphnis is about 8 kilometers in diameter, and orbits the planet in the Keeler Gap within the A ring.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exploration of Saturn</span> Overview of the exploration of Saturn

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<i>Family Portrait</i> (<i>MESSENGER</i>) Photograph of the Solar System taken by MESSENGER spacecraft

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References

  1. ↑ "Catalog Page for PIA17171". NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
  2. ↑ Porco, Carolyn (18 June 2013). "NASA's Cassini Cameras to Provide Breathtaking Image of Earth from Saturn". PBS . Archived from the original on 27 June 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 Jones, Jonathan (19 June 2013). "People of Earth, say cheese! Nasa to take everyone's picture from space". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  4. 1 2 Madrigal, Alexis (12 November 2013). "The Carl Sagan of Our Time Reprises the 'Pale Blue Dot' Photo of Earth". The Atlantic . Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  5. 1 2 Overbye, Dennis (12 November 2013). "The View From Saturn". The New York Times . Retrieved 12 November 2013.
  6. 1 2 "The Day the Earth Smiled". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  7. ↑ "The Day the Earth Smiled" . Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  8. ↑ "The Day the Earth Smiled". Astronomers Without Borders. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  9. ↑ "Cassini to Take Photo of Earth from Deep Space". saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2013-06-27.
  10. ↑ "Message to the Milky Way". diamondskyproductions.com.
  11. ↑ "Cassini spacecraft photographs Earth from 900 million miles away". Fox News . 22 July 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  12. ↑ Spinks, Peter (26 July 2013). "Earth viewed from a billion miles away". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  13. ↑ Porco, Carolyn (12 November 2013). "Viewpoint: Saturn snapped as Earth smiled". BBC News . Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  14. ↑ Hotz, David Lee (13 November 2013). "Saturn from the Dark Side". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  15. ↑ Boyle, Alan (12 November 2013). "Planets galore! Saturn probe's big pic finally unveiled". NBC News . Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  16. ↑ "La Tierra, un punto azul diminuto tras los anillos de Saturno". El Mundo. 13 November 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  17. ↑ Page, Lewis (13 November 2013). "SPACE, the FINAL FRONTIER: These are the images of the star probe Cassini". The Register . Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  18. ↑ Louis Suarato [@LouisS] (13 November 2013). "Saturn and astronomy make the front page of the New York Times" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  19. ↑ "Saturn and Its Rings, a Wide View" (PDF). The New York Times. 13 November 2013. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  20. ↑ Seth MacFarlane [@SethMacFarlane] (13 November 2013). "Brand new stunning photograph of Saturn, taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 3, 2013 – via Twitter.
  21. ↑ Allen, Erin (14 November 2013). "Portraits of the Solar System: Talking with Carolyn Porco About Carl Sagan". The Library of Congress Blog. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  22. ↑ "The Faces of 'Wave at Saturn'". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 11 November 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
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