TORONTO – Did you wave at Saturn?
On July 19, at 5:27 p.m. EST, NASA asked people around the world to look up wave at the sky as the Cassini orbiter, which is on a mission to study Saturn and its moon system, turned its camera toward Earth to image our planet along with the ringed planet.
NASA also asked people to submit photos of themselves waving at the distant planet.
On Aug. 21, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory revealed just why they asked people to do that: it used the photos to create a mosaic of Earth.
“Thanks to all of you, near and far, old and young, who joined the Cassini mission in marking the first time inhabitants of Earth had advance notice that our picture was being taken from interplanetary distances,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “While Earth is too small in the images Cassini obtained to distinguish any individual human beings, the mission has put together this collage so that we can celebrate all your waving hands, uplifted paws, smiling faces and artwork.”
The mosaic uses 1,400 images from more than 40 countries.
Click here to see the high-resolution mosaic.
Comments