Pale Blue Dot: Rare image shows Earth photographed from 900 million miles away

NASA has released a rare photograph of planet Earth taken from an unusual vantage point 900 million miles away

NASA's Cassini spacecraft, currently in orbit around Saturn to observe the distant planet's rings, captured a rare photograph of planet Earth.

Appearing as a pale blue dot within the picture frame which features Saturn's promiment rings in the foreground, Earth's distance from the camera - 900 million miles - becomes apparent.

This is only the third time that our home planet has been photographed from the outer solar system, as the camera needs to be pointed towards the bright sun to be able to capture Earth within the picture frame. From the outer solar system Earth appears to be very close to the sun.

In order to achieve the image capture, Cassini took advantage of a rare total eclipse of the sun from Saturn as its orbit took it into Saturn's shadow - blanking out the bright sunlight yet still keeping Earth in clear view.

In this rare image taken on July 19, 2013, the wide-angle camera on NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured Saturn's rings and our planet Earth in the same frame
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

"We can't see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19," Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement.

"Cassini's picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space, and also testifies to the ingenuity of the citizens of this tiny planet to send a robotic spacecraft so far away from home to study Saturn and take a look-back photo of Earth."

What do you make of the portrait of our planet captured from so far away? Share your comments below: