APOD: Earth Waves at Saturn (2013 Aug 24)

[APOD Robot]

Earth Waves at Saturn

Explanation: This friendly photo collage is constructed from more than 1,400 images shared by denizens of planet Earth as part of the Cassini Mission's July 19th Wave at Saturn event. The base picture of Earth corresponds to the view from the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft on that date as its own cameras recorded images including planet Earth as a pale blue dot in the background. Of course, Saturn was 9.65 Astronomical Units away at the time, so it took light from all the waving Earth dwellers just over 80 minutes to travel there. Want to smile? Download and zoom in to the full-resolution (28MB jpg file) collage image available here.

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[Beyond]

[ta152h0]

caramba that is good. Can we get plutonians to wave at Cassini ?

[Boomer12k]

Well....from that view of Earth...Cassini did not even SEE me....what a waste...

:---[===] *

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]A small cropped portion of the APOD collage. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech[/color][/b]

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<<Handwaving is a pejorative label applied to the action of displaying the appearance of doing something, when actually doing little, or nothing. For example, it is applied to debate techniques that involve fallacies. It is also used in working situations where productive work is expected, but no work is actually accomplished. Handwaving can be an idiomatic term, and it can also be a literal descriptive term for the use of excessive body language gestures that are associated with a lack of productivity in communication or other effort.

Handwaving arguments often include order-of-magnitude estimates and dimensional consistency. Competent, well-intentioned researchers and professors rely on handwaving when, given a limited time, a large result must be shown and minor technical details cannot be given much attention—e.g., "It can be shown that z is even."

By extension, handwaving is used in speculative fiction criticism to refer to a plot device that is left unexplained or sloppily explained because it is convenient to the story, with the implication that the writer is aware of the logical weakness but hopes the reader will not notice or will suspend disbelief. The fictional material handwavium/unobtainium is sometimes referred to in situations where the solution requires access to a substance that is physically impossible to create as it defies physics but is convenient to solving a problem in the story.>>

[Beyond]

"It can be shown that z is even."

I think that's a bit odd.

[Psnarf]

Minus 15 points: Use of passive voice.

[Anthony Barreiro]

That's me on the other side of Earth's northwestern limb, underneath the thick clouds.

[geckzilla]

Minus 15 points: Use of passive voice.

Are you keeping some kind of score?

[ta152h0]

I get handwaving here on Earth that I can actually see, usually on the freeway

[Robolt]

Would Cassini have seen this image f earth on that date? Seems strange that photo is centered on South America south of the equator.

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF][size=140]How Earth appeared to the Cassini spacecraft when its snapped a series of pictures of the planet from nearly 900 million miles away. Credit: NASA[/size][/color][/b]

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Would Cassini have seen this image of earth on that date? Seems strange that photo is centered on South America south of the equator.

More or less: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130722.html

The important thing is that Saturn would have been in the sky for much of Europe & the U.S. while Saturn shielded Cassini from the Sun.

[Fluffy Cotton Candy]

[quote="Beyond"][/quote]

Speechless, eh?

[Beyond]

[Celine_H]

Cool idea for the pic

Just wonder what images they're going to use for the color mosaic of the Saturn system!

"Scientists are busy putting together the color mosaic of the Saturn system, which they expect will take at least several more weeks to complete"