This is one of those things scientists do because they can!
Recently, the Cassini spacecraft was positioned on the nighttime side of Saturn, with the planet blocking the Sun. That meant a chance to photograph Saturn’s rings, Venus, Mars, seven Saturnian moons and Earth–all in one shot.
And, yes, if you click to see the full resolution image, Earth is a blue dot!
Normally, because of the Sun’s brightness, a photo like this couldn’t be attempted. Cassini’s sensors would be damaged or destroyed.
Though the photo was taken in July, NASA only published it this week. An annotated version is on top with the clean image below.
Pretty damn cool.
WOW, Fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing the pictures with us. They make me sure I want to visit Yale Unv. Observatory on an evening viewing soon.