On Friday ( 19/07/2013), approx 300 visitors gathered on the lawn of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles to have their snapshot taken by the Cassini spacecraft from almost 900 million miles away in outerspace.
Curator Laura Danly used a bullhorn to encourage everyone to head outside for the extraterrestrial photo shoot Friday daylight, where the observatory took their photograph from the far side of Saturn, reports the LA Times. Danly explained that the image would mostly feature the ringed planet with Earth as a tiny blue fragment.
The scientific ambition of the photo shoot was to study Saturn's rings as the planet will be backlit by the sun. However, having our earth in the shot tops it off, explained Florida Today.
Cassini took several images which will be stitched collectively to form one large mosaic picture. Scientists will also contrast Cassini's new photo with one taken in 2006 to investigate how Saturn's rings have tainted.
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At 2:20 p.m., Danley shouted her command of "Right now!" and the crowd threw their hands in the sky. Danly explain that the light waves carrying Earth's reflection would take 80 minutes to reach Cassini's camera.
Friday's photo shoot is odd because Cassini and the sun are on opposite sides of Saturn. That permitted the planet to be lit from behind, affording scientists a opportunity to study its rings more intimately, said observatory director Edwin Krupp.
the majority photos of Saturn attribute sunlight reflecting off the rings. But the glowing lighting obscures their details. "If nothing else, it's a beautiful picture worthy of the art galleries of the world," Krupp said. "It spotlights the human experience and gives us all a chance to be participants in a subconscious way."
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