		Site Map \| Contact Us \| Search:

JOIN

The Planetary Society Blog

By Emily Lakdawalla

Lutetia -- and Saturn!!

Jul. 10, 2010 | 14:32 PDT | 21:32 UTC

We need your help.
Please donate to support our blog, website, and podcast.

Weblog Archive

A quick post of just one of the gorgeous images from Rosetta's flyby of Lutetia today; for more, see the Rosetta Blog. But this one was just too pretty to wait for.

The solar system is a very, very empty place. It is incredibly rare to catch two objects passing close to each other. Yet, just as Rosetta was approaching for its flyby of Lutetia, it happened to catch a second solar system object in the background -- and a very recognizable one at that: Saturn!

Lutetia - and Saturn!
As Rosetta flew past Lutetia, a bright ringed planet passed through its field of view -- Saturn! Credit: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / RSSD / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA

So awesome. I'll have more analysis of the other images later!

Comment Script

Post this page to:

Comments

Naked-eye view from the Belt

So does this mean that future asteroid miners, when they look up from their work, would be able to look "up" and see Saturn's rings without a telescope, or even binoculars? That's awesome! Especially if they can look in another direction and see a bright blue speck called "home".

#1 - RobertB - 07/10/2010 - 20:06

Wow, just wow.

There's something about this picture that resonates with the moments I remember (first as a kid)seeing the first colour shots of Earth from orbit published in LIFE Magazine, then the first Earth-rise images shot from lunar orbit (Apollo 8 I think?), and more recently the sequence of stills from one of the Mars rovers that combined into the Sun setting on Mars.

I suspect that what brings this image, into the same category (for me anyway), is this -like those others bring a context that our minds can grasp in an instant - vast Saturn so tiny, a fleeting rock in foreground that we had to travel so far, so fast, over so much time to see - just a hint of the scale of creation.

Thank you for posting this so early, for us non-scientists to appreciate! Thanks also to the Planetary Society for its important advocacy, so that we may continue to see things like this, and put ourselves into ever-evolving perspective!

#2 - Philip Jackson - 07/10/2010 - 21:17

In A Lonely Place

Man, that picture gives me the chills.

#3 - Scott - 07/11/2010 - 13:13

Start Previous Page


Name

E-mail (Will not appear online)

Title

Comment

This comment form is powered by GentleSource Comment Script. It can be included in PHP or HTML files and allows visitors to leave comments on the website.

Emily's on Twitter! »