Cassini

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

This picture brings to mind many science fiction stories and songs I have read and sung. I used to dream about being an astronaut and traveling to the far reaches of our solar system, then striking out for uncharted space. This is the kind of vision I would have when I imagined exploring the galaxy in a space vehicle. I can almost feel the immense loneliness of looking back at a planet containing everyone I know, and eight billion other humans.

The truth is, this picture was taken by a camera on board a man-made vehicle in orbit around the planet Saturn. The photo shows Saturn, the rings of Saturn, and Earth as a tiny blue dot just to the right of centre in the picture (the bright one). It was taken by the Cassini probe built by NASA and sent to a distance of 1.4 billion km from earth. This is of course still within our solar system; yet, it is hard to imagine distances larger than this.

Elton John sang about the loneliness of space in the song Rocket Man. I wonder what he would think of the photo.

Rocket Man (listen to it here)
Elton John and Bernie Taupin

She packed my bags last night, pre-flight

Zero hour, nine a.m.

And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then

I miss the Earth so much, I miss my wife

It’s lonely out in space

On such a timeless flight

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time‘til touch down brings
me round again to find I’m not the man they think I am at home

Oh no, no, no, I’m a rocket man

Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids

In fact it’s cold as hell

And there’s no one there to raise them if you did

And all the science, I don’t understand

It’s just my job five days a week

A rocket man, a rocket man

And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time ‘til touch down brings
me round again to find I’m not the man they think I am at home

Oh no, no, no, I’m a rocket man

Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone