NASA released a plethora of photos the Cassini spacecraft took of Saturn on July 19, showing the ring-planet and the entire inner solar system, the New York Times reported.
Among the photo's released on Tuesday was a mosaic made up of numerous pictures in which Saturn, its moons and rings, and Earth, Venus and Mars are all visible for the first time, according to the Times.
Images with Saturn, Earth and any other planet are rare because the sun emits a glare which is strong enough to damage Cassini's sensors, according to NASA, but the sun was behind Saturn allowing the glare to be blocked, CNN reported.
NASA, knowing Earth would be captured in the picture, asked everyone on Earth to find Saturn in their sky view and smile for "Wave at Saturn Day" on July 19 and created a collage of all the pictures sent in, CNN reported.
Cassini never actually planned to be able to see people on the ground waving, but more than 1,400 images taken on July 19 were shared by people during the event and NASA released a collage assembled to look like the portion of space where Saturn lies with those pictures in August, CNN reported.
The mosaic of Saturn consists of 141 wide-angle images taken over the course of four hours when the Sun slipped behind Saturn, the Times reported. The pictures show 405,000 miles around Saturn and captured its rings and natural colors.
The Earth and Moon appear as tiny dots behind Saturn's rings, and the picture also shows Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, sending sprays of misty water into space which some astronomers believe to be proof of life beyond Earth, according to the Times.
In the pictures, Earth is seen as a bright blue dot in the lower right, and Venus is a small dot in the upper left with Mars appearing as a red dot above Venus.
To view the entire photo spread and interactive version, click here.
