Saturn + Cassini

No brighter than a normal star, is how Earth appears in the background of a spectacular photograph of Saturn that was captured by the Cassini spacecraft in July 2013 and released to the public on 12 November.   In this particular image, Cassini was staring in the direction of the Sun, but the Sun was blocked out by the bulk of Saturn's globe. In total, Cassini spent four hours observing the ring system while in Saturn's shadow, taking 323 photos as well as hundreds more observations with its three spectrometers.