Two Views of Earth
			
		
		
			Image Credit:   
Cassini Imaging Team,
SSI,
JPL,
ESA,
NASA & 
NASA/JHU Applied Physics Lab/Carnegie Inst. Washington 
		
		
			In a cross-Solar System interplanetary first, 
our Earth was photographed during the same day from both Mercury and Saturn.
Pictured on the left, Earth is the 
pale blue dot 
just below the rings of Saturn, as captured by the 
robotic Cassini spacecraft 
now orbiting the gas giant.
Pictured on the right, the 
Earth-Moon system is seen against a dark background, 
as captured by the 
robotic MESSENGER spacecraft 
now orbiting Mercury.
In the 
MESSENGER image, the Earth (left) and Moon (right) 
shine brightly with reflected sunlight.
MESSENGER took the overexposed image last Friday as part of a search for small natural satellites of the innermost planet, moons that would be expected to be quite dim.
During this same day, 
humans across 
planet Earth snapped many of their own 
pictures of Saturn.