Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 October 12 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Interplanetary Earth [3]Cassini Imaging Team, [4]SSI, [5]JPL, [6]ESA, [7]NASA & [8]NASA/[9]JHU Applied Physics Lab/[10]Carnegie Inst. Washington Explanation: In an interplanetary first, on July 19, 2013 Earth was photographed on the same day from two other worlds of the Solar System, innermost planet Mercury and ringed gas giant Saturn. [11]Pictured on the left, Earth is the [12]pale blue dot just below the rings of Saturn, as captured by the [13]robotic Cassini spacecraft then orbiting the [14]outermost gas giant. On that same day people across [15]planet Earth snapped many of their own [16]of their own pictures of Saturn. On the right, the [17]Earth-Moon system is seen against the dark background of space as captured by the [18]robotic MESSENGER spacecraft, then in Mercury orbit. MESSENGER took its image as part of a search for small natural satellites of Mercury, moons that would be expected to be quite dim. In the [19]MESSENGER image, the Earth (left) and Moon (right) are overexposed and [20]shine brightly with reflected sunlight. Destined not to return to their home world, both [21]Cassini and [22]Messenger have since retired from their missions of Solar System exploration. Tomorrow's picture: a jewel box of stars __________________________________________________________________ [23]< | [24]Archive | [25]Submissions | [26]Index | [27]Search | [28]Calendar | [29]RSS | [30]Education | [31]About APOD | [32]Discuss | [33]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [34]Robert Nemiroff ([35]MTU) & [36]Jerry Bonnell ([37]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [38]Specific rights apply. [39]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [40]ASD at [41]NASA / [42]GSFC & [43]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1910/earth_cassinimessenger_1799.jpg 3. http://ciclops.org/ 4. http://www.spacescience.org/ 5. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ 6. http://www.esa.int/ 7. http://www.nasa.gov/ 8. http://www.nasa.gov/ 9. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ 10. http://www.ciw.edu/ 11. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17038 12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_blue_dot 13. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini–Huygens 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_giant 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100713.html 16. http://www.flickr.com/groups/wave_at_saturn/pool/ 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130722.html 18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER 19. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia17171.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100901.html 21. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html 22. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191011.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 32. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=191012 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191013.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 35. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 36. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 37. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 39. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 40. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 41. https://www.nasa.gov/ 42. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 43. http://www.mtu.edu/