Candid Interplanetary Photography
Posted January 11th, 2009 by Howard TaylerI caught this over at APOD, and simply had to share with everybody… here’s a composite picture of Saturn, spectrally condensed (UV and IR have been shoved down into visible light ranges) that was taken by Cassini-Huygens from behind Saturn.
It looks, in Sandra’s words, “drawn.” Not photographed. Not “real.” I guess the universe is like that, throwing beauty and form and spectacle around and putting mere human artists to shame. There’s a new ring to be seen there, along with fantastic plays of light and shadow.
The best part, though? Earth is visible in this picture.
Be nice to everyone you see. We all live very, very close together on that pale blue dot.
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January 11th, 2009 at 12:20 am
I used to have this picture up at work, printed on an 11×17 color image, and whenever anyone would ask about it, I’d always say, “It’s a picture of Earth taken by the Cassini space probe.” Usually I’d get an odd look, and sometimes the question would come up, “Don’t you mean Saturn?”
And I’d just keep replying, “No, it’s a picture of Earth.” Only about three people ever stuck around long enough for me to point out the pale blue dot. It’s a truly humbling image, if you really think about it.
January 11th, 2009 at 12:34 am
I love that picture. I have a poster of the original pale blue dot image and speech hanging on my bedroom wall.
January 11th, 2009 at 1:35 am
it’s a cool picture, but in a sense, it’s not actually a “photograph”. If you took pictures of yourself in visual, IR and UV and compressed the whole thing into one image in the visible range, it’d look odd too.
What I’m saying, don’t be surprised that it doesn’t look “real”.
January 11th, 2009 at 4:49 am
‘A microscopic dot, on a microscopic dot, saying “You Are Here”‘ - does put it rather into perspective, doesn’t it?
January 11th, 2009 at 5:06 am
This has never seemed more relevant.
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20061014.html
Kevyn: Can it wait just a little while? I need to fab myself a new pair of glasses.
Elf: Why? You seem to see just fine without ‘em.
Kevyn: Fine? Maybe, if I were willing to make do with the paltry sliver known as “visible light.”
Elf: I’m sure you can get by without night-vision for a few days.
Kevyn: I miss basking in the comforting radio glow of the cosmic background.
January 11th, 2009 at 5:51 am
The full stop is bigger than the ‘earth’ dot.
January 11th, 2009 at 6:43 am
@Austin Shackles The uncompressed, visual-light-only picture is here and it’s every bit as impressive. A little darker, but still magical.
January 11th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I couldn’t see it on the blog page, but when I went to the link - there we were, that pale blue dot.
…..and YOU are to blame for me thinking of Disney’s “It’s a Small World”; the song started going through my head when I read the line that starts “…be nice to one another…”
But yes - it IS a Small World we live on, “…where a smile means Friendship to everyone.” ^.~
January 11th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Howard, it only looks “drawn” to you because your own renderings of astronomical phenomena are so awesome. If I tried to “draw” Saturn, it wouldn’t look as good as my youngest son can do with crayons (age 7).
What I’d really like to know is whether we could “see” the IR signature of a plasma cannon on the little blue dot at that scale… Or a whole pallet of Boomex when it goes pop. Heh.
January 11th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Thanks. “You are here” went on my desktop for a reminder of how truly insignificant our current problems really are. And that we need to take care of them before they become significant to us.
January 11th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I want a pair of those glasses- the best I can do at the moment is to send my digital camera off to LifePixel for conversion to IR-vis-UV capability (by removal of the blocking IR/UV filter).
Some rough attempts at luminance-substitution blending of IR and visible images are shown at http://www.flickr.com/photos/33113759@N03/
I’m an engineer, not an artist, so don’t expect beauty, just an interesting technique.
January 11th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
that’s particularly amazing when i can remember, in my own lifetime, when “pictures of earth from space” were only artist’s renderings, not even copies of real views.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Ketira, I hate you.
Now I am going to have that stinking song stuck in my head all morning. And seeing as it is not even one AM yet, it is going to be a long morning.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
WEKM: Awww…. hope you thought of something else, like Tom Smith’s “Trans-Poly U Fight Song” or “Hope Erie”. ^.~
However, you have to keep two things in mind about me: (1) I grew up watching WDW get built, and (2) now I live about 75 miles from the Resort. In a way, Disney helps *my county’s* economy because its cruise lines start from Port Canaveral, and sometimes folk who go to WDW end up spending a day at Kennedy Space Center.
But you have to figure - the song *does* fit the pic.