Spacecraft image shows Earth from 900 million miles away

Saturn
NASA
World
Wednesday 24 July 2013 at 9:52am

Thousands of Earthlings posed invisibly for Cassini's spectacular photo. Credit: NASA

Earth appears as a tiny blue dot in a rare image taken from Saturn by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

The photo, snapped from 898 million miles away, captures Saturn's rings and the Earth in the same frame.

The Moon is also faintly visible as a protrusion to the right of our planet.

Many of Earth's inhabitants took up NASA's invitation to look skywards and "smile" for the picture, which was taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera on 19 July.

The spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn since 2004.