Don’t forget to look up and wave. Starting at 9.27 pm GMT on Friday, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will spend 15 minutes taking your photo from the far side of Saturn. The Cassini team is giving advanced warning so that earthlings can revel in the moment. “It will be a day for all of us to smile and celebrate life on the Pale Blue Dot,” . To mark the occasion, here are our favourite portraits of Earth from space – back in the days when no one knew they were being snapped. Lisa Grossman
Spot the dot
Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, taking stunning images of the gas giant and its rings and moons. In 2006, the spacecraft made this mosaic of photos backlit by the sun. With Saturn blocking the sun’s glare, Cassini was able to reveal previously unknown faint rings – and the Earth, which you can just make out as a faint white speck on the left-hand side.
(Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)
First view of home
Grainy and drab, this image of Earth from space stands out not for its beauty but for being the very first. Snapped by NASA’s Lunar Orbiter 1 on 23 August 1966, it was an afterthought: mission controllers told the spacecraft to turn around and point its cameras back at Earth just before it passed behind the moon.
(Image: NASA)
Earthrise
This iconic view of Earth rising over the lunar horizon was captured by Apollo 8 as it made the first crewed trip behind the moon in 1968. The same mission provided the first live television coverage of the lunar surface.
(Image: NASA)
Earthrise from down under
The Japanese Kaguya lunar orbiter caught sight of Earth from beneath the moon’s South Pole in 2007.
(Image: JAXA/NHK)
Blue marble
One of the most famous shots of Earth from space, this was taken by Apollo 17 in December 1972. The rare view of the whole planet, fully illuminated, was made possible by the way in which Earth, the spacecraft and the sun were aligned. , the iconic shot was adopted by the environmental movement.
(Image: NASA)
Crescent Earth
Even when you can barely see it, Earth is intriguing. This thin sliver of the planet illuminated by the sun was caught by the European Space Agency’s in 2007. Rosetta went on to fly by two asteroids, and is expected to land on a comet in 2014.
(Image: OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / RSSD / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA)
Two half-domes
The Jupiter-exploring Galileo spacecraft caught this shot of Earth and its moon in 1992 from a distance of about 6.2 million kilometres.
(Image: NASA)
Take a Martian view
The sharp-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter can snap photos of tiny surface features on the Red Planet, but it can also turn back and look over its shoulder at Earth. This image was taken in 2007.
(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
