I Think I Can See My House

Have a look at this amazing photo, and don’t forget to click it for a larger view:

Earth seen from Saturn

The curved objects on the right of the photo and arcing more or less through the center of the image are the rings of Saturn. If you look closely, you’ll see a whitish speck just above and to the left of the brightest rings. That speck is our own Earth, as it appears to the Cassini spacecraft that’s currently orbitting the sixth planet. Our moon is supposed to be dimly visible there, too, although I can’t see it myself. Details can be found here, but here’s the important point:

Seen from the outer solar system through Cassini’s cameras, the entire expanse of direct human experience, so far, is nothing more than a few pixels across.

Kind of makes the frustrations of daily life seem like small potatoes, doesn’t it?

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