{"id":797349,"date":"2025-07-18T07:57:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T12:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=797349"},"modified":"2025-07-18T07:57:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T12:57:06","slug":"the-day-the-earth-smiled-at-saturn-12-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=797349","title":{"rendered":"The Day the Earth Smiled at Saturn 12 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nHere\u2019s the famous The Day the Earth Smiled photo, taken by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013. Image via NASA\/ JPL\/ SSI\/ CICLOPS\/ Mother Jones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
July 19, 2013: The Day the Earth Smiled<\/h3>\n
On this date, humanity acquired its 3rd-ever image of Earth from the outer solar system. And it\u2019s one of the most awe-inspiring space photos ever. The planet Saturn eclipsed the sun from the vantage point of the orbiting Cassini spacecraft. And we on Earth cast our thoughts toward space and our tiny place in it. Eventually, the imaging team later dubbed this image The Day the Earth Smiled. By the way, the two previous images \u2013 Pale Blue Orb image by Cassini in 2006\u00a0and Pale Blue Dot image by Voyager in 1990 are discussed below.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft had been orbiting Saturn and weaving in and out among its moons since 2004. On July 19, 2013, the position of the spacecraft lined up so that Saturn eclipsed the sun as seen from its vantage point. With the sun\u2019s light blocked, space scientists captured the 3rd-ever picture of Earth\u00a0and Earth\u2019s moon. Of course, the image is\u00a0from the outer solar system, from hundreds of millions of miles away.<\/p>\n
As Cassini slipped into Saturn\u2019s shadow that day, it was also able to capture images of the planets Venus and Mars, Saturn\u2019s backlit rings, and several of Saturn\u2019s moons, all at once. You can see the\u00a0dark side of Saturn, its bright limb, the main rings and the F, G and E rings. The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 20 degrees below the ring plane.<\/p>\n
A unique chance to be photographed from a distant world<\/h3>\n
The occasion defined the first time that people had advance notice another world was going to photograph them. NASA invited everyone on Earth to turn skyward and to smile and wave at the camera hundreds of millions of miles away. As the day approached, Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said people should:<\/p>\n
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\u2026 look up, think about our cosmic place, think about our planet, how unusual it is, how lush and life-giving it is, think about your own existence, think about the magnitude of the accomplishment that this picture-taking session entails. We have a spacecraft at Saturn. We are truly interplanetary explorers. Think about all that, and smile.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Porco also said:<\/p>\n
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Ever since we caught sight of the Earth among the rings of Saturn in September 2006 in a mosaic that has become one of Cassini\u2019s most beloved images, I have wanted to do it all over again, only better. This time, I wanted to turn the entire event into an opportunity for everyone around the globe to savor the uniqueness of our planet and the preciousness of the life on it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
She accomplished that, and much more. Porco was also involved with the planning of the earlier Pale Blue Orb and Pale Blue Dot images.<\/p>\n
The pictures from Saturn<\/h3>\n
The resulting incredible image \u2013 released by NASA on July 23, 2013 \u2013 spans a distance of 404,880 miles (650,000 km), roughly twice the distance from the Earth to the moon.\u00a0Cassini was about 898 million miles (1.45 billion km) away from Earth at the time. That distance is nearly 10 times the distance from the sun to Earth.<\/p>\n
NASA said the natural-color image is as the human eye would see it, if you had been there with Cassini. Using both its wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras, the spacecraft captured a total of 323 photographs over four hours, but only 141 images ended up in this panoramic mosaic. This mosaic is also one of 33 \u201cfootprints\u201d that cover the entire ring system and Saturn itself.<\/p>\nView larger. | NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft took this natural-color portrait on July 19, 2013. It\u2019s the 3rd-ever image of Earth from the outer solar system. Plus, it\u2019s the 1st image to show Saturn, its moons, and rings, Earth and its moon, Venus, and Mars, all together. Image via NASA\/ JPL-Caltech\/ SSI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nView larger. | Annotated image of Saturn and the view from Saturn, taken by Cassini on July 19, 2013. Image via NASA\/ JPL-Caltech\/ SSI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAn earlier raw image of the Earth and moon as seen from Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft on July 19, 2013. Earth is the brighter dot; the moon is to its lower left. Image via NASA\/ JPL-Caltech\/ Space Science Institute\/ Medium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The Day the Earth Smiled<\/h3>\n
Thus, The Day the Earth Smiled was born. And people on Earth went out, looked up, waved and smiled.<\/p>\nCollage of people on Earth on July 19, 2013. Image via NASA. Read more about this image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA closer view of some of the many photos that make up the collage. Image via NASA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
These are very cool associated images from this day. A collage of people on Earth was created to celebrate the occasion. Over 1,400 individual photos come together to depict a view of the Earth. On the same day that The Day the Earth Smiled image was taken, participants from 40 countries took photos of themselves waving at Saturn. This awesome collage is the result. The images came to NASA\/ JPL-Caltech via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Google+ and email.<\/p>\n
Pale Blue Orb<\/h3>\n
The Pale Blue Orb image by Cassini was the 2nd-ever image of Earth taken from the outer solar system. Cassinie captured it on February 15, 2006, just two years after Cassini began orbiting Saturn. At the time, the spacecraft was about 930 million miles (1.5 billion km) from Earth. The Earth and moon appear as a tiny blue dot on the right side of the image, just above center. When magnified, you can see the moon as a slight \u201cprotrusion\u201d on the upper left side of the Earth.<\/p>\n
As with the 2013 image, the 2006 image captured the passing of Saturn directly in front of the sun as seen from Cassini.<\/p>\nThis image is known as the Pale Blue Orb. The Cassini spacecraft captured it back in 2006, showing the Earth and moon as tiny dots seen through Saturn\u2019s rings. Image via NASA\/ JPL\/ Space Science Institute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
You can read more about the Pale Blue Orb image here.<\/p>\n
Pale Blue Dot<\/h3>\n
The Pale Blue Dot image is the first image ever taken of Earth from the outer solar system. NASA\u2019s Voyager 1 spacecraft captured it on February 14, 1990. And it\u2019s still the most distant image of Earth. Voyager\u2019s distance from Earth at the time was 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km). The image showed Earth as a pale blue dot, hence the name. Earth appears as a very tiny crescent, only 0.12 pixel in size. Voyager 1 had reached the edge of the solar system, 12 years after its launch. Of course, by then, it had completed its primary mission.<\/p>\nThis is a photo known as the Pale Blue Dot \u2013 the 1st of only 3 images of Earth taken from the outer solar system so far. The \u201cdot\u201d \u2013 our world, Earth \u2013 is on the right side of the photo, about halfway down. Image via NASA\/ JPL. Read more about this image here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
You can read more about the Pale Blue Dot here.<\/p>\n
Carl Sagan requested the Pale Blue Dot<\/h3>\n
At the request of astronomer Carl Sagan, NASA commanded the spacecraft to turn around and photograph the planets of the solar system. The solar system mosaic was interesting. However, this image \u2013 the image of our tiny world in space, surrounded by emptiness \u2013 was heart-rending. Carl Sagan later famously said, in part:<\/p>\n
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Look again at that dot. That\u2019s here. That\u2019s home. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Read more about the Pale Blue Dot image and about what Carl Sagan said.<\/p>\n
Bottom line: NASA\u2019s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn until 2017, took the 3rd-ever picture of Earth from the outer solar system 12 years ago on July 19, 2013. The image is called The Day the Earth Smiled. This followed two previous similar pictures taken in 1990 and 2006.<\/p>\n
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Deborah Byrd<\/h4>\n
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About the Author:<\/h6>\n
Our Editor-in-Chief Deborah Byrd works to keep all the astronomy balls in the air between EarthSky’s website, YouTube page and social media platforms. She’s the primary editor of our popular daily newsletter and a frequent host of EarthSky livestreams. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. “Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers,” she says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Paul Scott Anderson<\/h4>\n
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About the Author:<\/h6>\n
Paul Scott Anderson has had a passion for space exploration that began when he was a child when he watched Carl Sagan\u2019s Cosmos. He studied English, writing, art and computer\/publication design in high school and college. He later started his blog The Meridiani Journal in 2005, which was later renamed Planetaria. He also later started the blog Fermi Paradoxica, about the search for life elsewhere in the universe.
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\nWhile interested in all aspects of space exploration, his primary passion is planetary science and SETI. In 2011, he started writing about space on a freelance basis with Universe Today. He has also written for SpaceFlight Insider and AmericaSpace and has also been published in The Mars Quarterly. He also did some supplementary writing for the iOS app Exoplanet.
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\nHe has been writing for EarthSky since 2018, and also assists with proofing and social media.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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![\"Small,](\"https:\/\/earthsky.org\/upl\/2013\/07\/Earth-moon-Cassini-7-19-2013.jpg\")
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