Earth Waves at Saturn's Cassini Spacecraft; NASA Releases Photo Collage

August 23,2013

It's your chance to see yourself from space.
A new collage called Earth Waves at Cassini was released by NASA this week. The image commemorates July's "Wave at Saturn" event, when the Cassini spacecraft turned its attention toward Earth and snapped a photo.
SPACE.com reports more than 40,000 people took a moment to wave at Cassini that day. People around the world shared more than 1,400 photos that day, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL, says the event marked the first time people on Earth had early notice that a photo was being taken from a far away planet.
"While Earth is too small in the images Cassini obtained to distinguish any individual human beings, the mission has put together this collage so that we can celebrate all your waving hands, uplifted paws, smiling faces and artwork," Spilker said in a news release.
The mosaic is one of several photos NASA is working on from the out-of-this-world photo shoot. NBC News reports NASA plans to release a large, full-color mosaic that will show all of Saturn and its massive rings, with Earth as a blue speck in the background. You can expect to see that image in the next few weeks.

MORE: Astronaut Takes Hundreds of Photos of Earth from I.S.S.

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Cocoa Beach, Fla.

Hadfield points out the rockets on the right and cruise ships in the middle of the photo. (Image: Chris Hadfield/NASA)