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NASA Image Shows Earth Between the Rings of Saturn
- huangc10 9y agoAnyone else recently read that there may be the possibility of life on Saturn's moon Enceladus within it's hydrothermal vents?
- Pica_soO 9y agoHe is a heretic, claiming there is not a giant eye watching us behind the crystal sky. To the sulphur stake with him.
- _eric 9y agoThis reminded me of "The Pale Blue Dot" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pfwY2TNehw
- rimliu 9y agoAnd there is also this beauty with Earth visible: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/3315/ https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/3315/
- Artlav 9y agoYep, that little dot in the sea of infinity is our little blue marble. No one have ever been more than a pixel (EDIT: a couple hundred pixels) distant from it, and soon even that achievement would fade from living memory.
- Sharlin 9y agoWell, we've been a bit farther away than a single pixel :) The moon is also visible in the photo (and appears to be closer to Earth than it actually is because the Moon-Earth-Saturn angle was not 90 degrees when Cassini took this picture).
- Artlav 9y agoAh, i see. I thought the Moon was unresolved within the dot, not the faint dot to the left. :(
- Sharlin 9y agoTo be fair, the Earth-Moon separation as seen from Saturn is about one arcminute, just at the limit of the angular resolution of human eye. To a human they wouldn't be discernible as separate objects. Cassini's camera has a much narrower field of view.
- rgun 9y agoEarth in this image has a diameter of around 5 pixels. So each pixel here is around 2500 km (as diameter of earth is around 12700 km [1]) Farthest human has been is 400,000 km [2]. So the farthest we have ever been is around 160 pixels. [1] https://www.google.co.in/search?q=diameter+of+earth&oq=diameter+of+earth&aqs=chrome..69i57j6j0l4.3154j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.co.in/search?q=diameter+of+earth&oq=diame... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Farthest_humans_from_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Fa...
- muench 9y agoThe distance from earth to the moon is 384,400 km, and in the smaller detail picture that earth to moon distance is about 23 pixels. Or about 16,700 km per pixel. And note they describe that small picture as "zoomed in", So I figure 400km is about 23 or maybe 24 pixels at most =D (or a diameter of less than 50 pixels). Waiting for someone to find an even better estimation!
- nomercy400 9y agoYou are overlooking one major thing: From the perspective of the camera, the position of the moon relative to the earth matters for the number of pixels. For example, if the moon was directly between the earth and the camera, the earth-to-moon distance in pixels would be 0, but the real distance would still be ~384.400km. You cannot use the earth-to-moon distance, unless you also know the exact position of the camera, earth and moon in the 3D plane.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pc86 9y agoDoes this pedantry really change the meaning of Artlav's statement?
- jbg_ 9y agoPlease don't put down accuracy.
- tombert 9y agoIt's a bit trippy to look at that picture, and realize that literally everything I know exists in that one little spec. It's cosmically humbling.
- brlewis 9y agoHumbling is good. On the other hand, I feel proud to live on the only planet we know of that has managed to take a selfie.
- sdiepend 9y agoWe have already made plenty of selfies, even before the word was a thing.
- djsumdog 9y agoThe Pale Blue dot. It's where we keep all our stuff. The two most likely outcomes are humans will expand into the stars or we go extinct (or we're already in the former and this is just a simulation).
- netcraft 9y agoI know Cassini isn't really the point of this particular image, but was reading over the weekend about all of its accomplishments. It is quite amazing how much that one program has achieved - and if we eventually find life on Enceladus it will be just one more.
- ensiferum 9y agoThat tiny little speck in that endless blackness is us. All of the human race living on this tiny rock fighting over who owns which piece of land and whose religion is most peaceful. All the world leaders should be spent to space to understand how insignificant we are and how petty and insignificant our disagreements are.
- ysavir 9y agoSo size is the most critical aspect of significance?
- ucontrol 9y agoExcellent observation. Most critical? Maybe not. But it is undoubtedly very much a significant and underrecognized factor. The Overview Effect is a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect
- nsxwolf 9y agoI've always thought the Overview Effect is a cognitive error, but it has this cloud of piety surrounding it "because astronauts". At its best, it inspires calls to environmentalism (the fragility of the Earth), but at its worst, and it's usually at its worst, it inspires nihilistic Carl Saganisms like the Pale Blue Dot.
- knowaveragejoe 9y agoHow is Pale Blue Dot in any way nihilistic? I feel like you missed the point of the entire thing if the message you got was one of hopelessness.
- compton_effect 9y agoI mean it is a bit nihilist but again just calling something nihilist doesn't invalidate it. I agree The way he[Carl Sagan] weighs it is the way that I think people should view this idea. Instead of taking it to believe nothing matters, take it as a means to strive to do better, to see the only barriers that prevent our civilization from accomplishing greatness are artificial.
- rodionos 9y ago> This image is part of a growing catalogue of "propeller" moons... Continued monitoring of these objects may lead to direct observations of the interaction between a disk of material and embedded moons. Such interactions help scientists understand fundamental principles of how solar systems formed from disks of matter. I urgently need a refresher on astronomy so I can have an intelligent discussion about space with 6-year olds. So much has happened since last time I took it in high school.
- ashark 9y agoMy oldest is four and I feel this way about everything. They accidentally ask really tough questions constantly. There's no need to go to space for the tough stuff. This morning: "How to people know there's grass?" I managed to appease her with a crappy explanation of how sight works (just saying "we see it" didn't fly—we were in the car or I wouldn't have tried being so lazy) but hot damn there's a lot going on there. Like, about 1/3 of philosophy and some good chunks of physics/optics, (neuro-)biology, psychology, chemistry, et c. I'm way too dumb for this job!
- rhcom2 9y agoIf you can share a thirst for knowledge, a love of learning and a constant curiosity she'll be fine! You don't need to know the answers to everything, she just needs to know asking questions is fun.
- jdmichal 9y agoYou could always answer, "How do you know there's you?" Never too early to trigger existential crisis!
- ashark 9y agoShe already started asking tough questions about mortality at a disturbingly-young age (like: two). Fortunately she's decided all on her own that reaching old age leads to some kind of reincarnation (she seems certain that at some point after I get old I'll be a kid again and can play with toys and go to school and such, for instance), so her psyche is safe for now. No need to throw any more curveballs her way. We're right on the edge as it is, haha.
- carlmungz 9y agoMarvelous image.
- raamdev 9y ago> The spacecraft captured the view on April 12, 2017 That's the anniversary of the first human spaceflight, celebrated as Yuri's Night (and also, awesomely, my birthday): > Yuri's Night is named for the first human to launch into space, Yuri Gagarin, who flew the Vostok 1 spaceship on April 12, 1961. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri%27s_Night https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri%27s_Night
- weirdo1 9y agoWhat I thought was stars in the background, was actually dust on my monitor.
- ddlatham 9y agoWhat I thought was dust on my monitor, was actually the moon.
- clarkmoody 9y agoThat's here. That's home. That's us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
- Buttons840 9y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH7ZRF6zNoc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH7ZRF6zNoc I like the rendition of that quote at the end of the COSMOS documentary series.
- leggomylibro 9y agoAnd interestingly, this is the second great 'putting things in perspective' shot taken by Cassini. The first: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5915/ https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/5915/
- pps 9y agoBeautiful picture. I also like this stoic meditation, it reminds me what is real https://philosophy-of-cbt.com/2011/08/13/the-view-from-above-stoic-meditation-script/ https://philosophy-of-cbt.com/2011/08/13/the-view-from-above...
- rejectedstone 9y agoThis may be a silly question, but where are all of the stars? This image is amazing! I love that you can even see the moon. When I saw this I thought, if I can see the earth and its moon clearly from Saturn, then I should be able to see Saturn and her moons from Earth (then I remembered all of the stars, and how hard it would be to make that out in the night sky).
- sqeaky 9y agoMost cameras only have a range of brightness they can pickup. The rings of Saturn and the Earth are very bright compared to the background stars. The camera is set to let only a little light in, perhaps by having a shorter exposure or something similar. Not enough light comes in to make out the stars but the brighter objects come through clearly. If they more light, even to see the stars then the brighter objects would appears whitewashed with brightness and may even otherwise interfere with the photo.
- sidcool 9y agoSuch an inspiring and humbling image. Philosophical crisis beginning in 3 2 1...
- CodeSheikh 9y agoShaq here, a MVP and 4 times NBA championships. That dot looks convincingly flat to me, not round.
- jacquesm 9y agoAka NASA's gentle reminder to clean my monitor. Amazing image.
- alejohausner 9y agoFor me, this picture doesn't say that Earth is small and insignificant. It merely says that Saturn is very far away from Earth.
- SkyMarshal 9y agoMakes me think of The Expanse series (http://www.jamessacorey.com/ http://www.jamessacorey.com/). Hard sci-fi, no warp/ftl, no artificial gravity, etc; all takes place within the solar system.
- manigandham 9y agoIt's probably the best show the SyFy channel has ever aired: http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse
- rglover 9y agoIn other words, we're totally insignificant. Happy Monday!
- nkkollaw 9y agoI don't understand exactly why all space pictures are black and white. There are hi-res cameras that are smaller than a coin now available to consumers, so I can't even imagine what could be used by scientists. Is it because they need to be transmitted back to earth, and 1 channel would be better than 4?
- jacquesm 9y agoIt's because monochromatic filters would allow for a much larger portion of the incident light to be captured than if there were multiple filters active in different wavelengths at the same time (which you would need for color photography). Those filters are typically wheels that are rotated mechanically.
- jwilliams 9y agoYup - it's a higher priority to capture visible, infrared and ultraviolet. Plus, the design of Cassini design of Cassini started in the 1980s and many of the part decisions would have been made then - even then they would have favored rugged, tried-and true technology over anything cutting edge. Actual launch was 1997.
- nkkollaw 9y agoBut wouldn't color allow to observe the features a lot better? To me you lose a lot of details when you remove the color (although I would think there isn't a lot of color in space).
- jacquesm 9y agoColor isn't so much removed as it is filtered out to improve the sensitivity in other bands. By filtering out visible light (or least, most of it) other bands can be imaged with much higher sensitivity (but it is also possible just to filter out a visible band of the spectrum for imaging). Just like you can't see IR right now with the naked eye but you could see a BW print of an IR filtered image (that's a 'false color' image, technically that term should be reserved for images that show other wavelengths as colors that we can interpret). The same goes for UV. A lot of astronomical imaging is done in wavelengths we can not observe directly. Almost all those 'pretty color pictures from space' are false color images. Another important bit is that for the most part space is the same on that scale today as it is tomorrow, so if you want to make several images of the same object with different filters you usually can without much in terms of loss of opportunity. For some configurations and objects nearer to us that is more problematic but for objects further away time is on our side. The furthest example of this is radio telescopes, which image the sky using radio waves, waves so long that they are no longer called 'light'. And yet, we can make really nice images by shifting those radio frequencies to the visible spectrum allowing us to 'see' with radio waves.
- metehe 9y agoNasa is showing a lot of imaginary photos through our history. They start to be a tad over pushing things and sometimes I wonder how much is just a photoshop works and make believe "facts"..
- coss 9y agoI've seen earth beams sparkle between the rings of Saturn.
- SnacksOnAPlane 9y agoMan, I don't get why everyone's saying that we're insignificant because of this photo. As far as we know, we're the most exciting thing going on in this corner of the universe. There is probably no other place that has conscious beings in that photo. We are massively important, primarily because we can recognize our own importance. This isn't to say it isn't good to be humble. It certainly can be. But we're pretty damn incredible.