![]() This is only the third time ever that Earth has been imaged from the outer solar system. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSIīottom line: Much-awaited photos of the Earth and moon, as seen from the darkside of Saturn during an eclipse of the sun by Saturn on July 19, 2013. Notice that Earth is pale blue, and the moon is stark white. Seen from a billion kilometers away, through the ice and dust particles of Saturn’s rings, Earth appears as a tiny, bright dot. | Earth and moon seen from Saturn July 19, 2013. Image description from In Saturn’s Shadow, on the CICLOPS Website. Earth is the blue point of light on the left the moon is fainter, white, and on the right. Earth and moon are clearly seen as separate objects in the narrow-angle image below. The E and G rings have been brightened for better visibility.Įarth, which is 898 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) away in this image, appears as a blue dot at center right the moon can be seen as a fainter protrusion off its right side. The breaks in the brightness of Saturn’s limb are due to the shadows of the rings on the globe of Saturn, preventing sunlight from shining through the atmosphere in those regions. The limb, or edge of Saturn against the backdrop of space, and the F ring are overexposed. What you’re seeing here is the dark side of Saturn, its bright limb, the main rings, the F ring, and the G and E rings. This is the only wide-angle footprint that has the Earth-moon system in it. ![]() At each footprint, images were taken in different spectral filters for a total of 323 images: some were taken for scientific purposes and some to produce a natural color mosaic. NASA says this is only one “footprint” in a mosaic of 33 footprints covering the entire Saturn ring system (including Saturn itself). Earth appears as a pale blue dot, while the moon is stark white. The wide-angle camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured Earth and the moon, plus Saturn’s rings, in the same frame. Here is the third-ever image of Earth – taken on July 19, 2013, aka the day Earth smiled. You’re also seeing the dark side of Saturn, its bright limb and some of Saturn’s rings. | Earth, nearly a billion miles away (1.44 billion kilometers) in this image. In this astronaut photograph, numerous white well locations and petroleum drilling structures mark the Yates Oil Field in the layered sedimentary rocks of the Permian Basin.View larger. Later activity in the Earth’s crust caused folding of the sedimentary layers, creating ideal conditions for the formation, trapping, and storage of petroleum. The sediments hardened into primarily organic-rich carbonate and minerals such as common table salt. The Basin filled with thick layers of sediment during the Paleozoic Era (about 545 to 251 million years ago) as the region was alternately covered by shallow oceans, or exposed as coastal salt flats. The Basin is a large depression in the bedrock surface along the southern edge of the North American craton, an ancient core of continental crust. The area holds one of the thickest deposits of rock from the Permian Period, which lasted from approximately 290 to 251 million years ago. The Permian Basin of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico is one of the most productive petroleum provinces of North America. The older Royosa Formation, meanwhile, peeks through in some areas where erosion has scraped away overlying rock layers. These rocks are flanked in some areas, especially near the river, by a green-yellow sequence of rocks that are part of the younger Hunical Formation, formed during drier times. In the first image, the deep reds of the Candeleros Formation-a sequence of sandstones formed roughly 90 to 100 million years ago in a braided river system-dominate the landscape. ![]() The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired an image showing part of the basin on September 3, 2018.įrom space, boundaries between some of the major groups of sedimentary rock formations are visible. And for those in the oil business, it is fertile ground for gas and oil exploration. For paleontologists, the basin is a great place to find fossils, particularly dinosaurs. As the Neuquén River winds its way from the Andes through west-central Argentina toward the Atlantic Ocean, it passes a spectacular series of rock formations in the Neuquén Basin. ![]()
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