Portal:Outer space/Selected picture/26
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI
This is a photo taken of Saturn and its rings, The Day the Earth Smiled. The Day the Earth Smiled refers to the photograph and the date July 19, 2013, on which the Cassini spacecraft turned to image Saturn, its entire ring system, and the Earth during an eclipse of the Sun, as it had done once before during its previous nine years in orbit. The name also refers to all the activities associated with that event. Conceived by the Cassini imaging team leader and planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, the concept called for all the world's people to reflect on our place in the cosmos, to marvel at life on Earth, and, at the time the pictures were taken, to look up and smile in celebration.