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JPLers Wave at Saturn as Part of Worldwide Campaign

July 19, 2013

As NASA's Cassini spacecraft turned its imaging cameras to Earth, scientists, engineers and visitors at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., gathered to wave at our robotic photographer in the Saturn system on July 19, 2013.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

About 200 people gathered on the mall at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to wave at Saturn on July 19, 2013. At the time NASA's Cassini spacecraft had turned to take a picture of Earth from its perch in the Saturn system. The Cassini mission gave Earthlings advance notice of its picture, marking the first time people knew in advance that their picture was being taken from interplanetary distances.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

As NASA's Cassini spacecraft turned its imaging cameras to Earth, some 200 engineers, scientists and visitors at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., waved at our robotic photographer in the Saturn system on July 19, 2013. The Cassini mission gave Earthlings advance notice of its picture, marking the first time people knew in advance that their picture was being taken from interplanetary distances.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Telescopes, telephone and tablets at the ready, a group of amateur astronomers gathers under twilight skies to wave at Saturn on July 19, 2013. Their gathering in the town of Kendal in England's Cumbria district was one of many international celebrations as Earth was imaged from deep space by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Courtesy of S. White/Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal

Come one, come all! Dressed-up characters and space buffs gathered at San Diego Comic-Con International to wave at Saturn on July 19, 2013. They celebrated a special opportunity for NASA's Cassini spacecraft in the Saturn system to turn its cameras to image Earth.

Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech

Students and staffers gather outside the Science Center of Iowa in Des Moines. They smile and wave in anticipation of their deep-space portrait session with NASA's Cassini spacecraft during the July 19, 2013, "Wave at Saturn" event.

Credit: SCI

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took pictures of Earth from 900 million miles away today.

From its perch in the Saturn system, NASA's Cassini spacecraft took pictures of Earth from nearly 900 million miles (nearly 1.5 billion kilometers) today. To celebrate the first time the public has had advance notice that Earth's portrait was being taken from interplanetary distances, scientists and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other Earthlings elsewhere gathered to wave at Saturn on July 19. Cassini took pictures of Earth between 2:27 and 2:42 p.m. PDT today.

The Earth images are part of a larger mosaic of the Saturn system that Cassini is taking while in Saturn's shadow. The mosaic will help scientists learn more about the fainter rings encircling Saturn.

The processing of the Earth image is expected to take a few days, and processing of the full Saturn system mosaic will likely take several weeks.

Members of the public can share pictures from the event by using the hashtag #waveatsaturn on Twitter, or uploading pictures to the event's Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/wave_at_saturn/ . The event's Facebook page is: http://bit.ly/waveatsaturn .

Those who waved at Saturn today can download a certificate of participation at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/waveatsaturn/certificate/ .

For more information, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/waveatsaturn .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, and designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras.

News Media Contact

Jia-Rui Cook

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0724

jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

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