Earth and Moon viewed from a distance of 1.4 billion km

Cassini, a spaceship with the mission to explore Saturn, captures green planets during its last days in outer space.

The Earth and Moon are two tiny bright spots seen from Saturn. (Photo: NASA).

NASA on May 27 shared images of the Earth and Moon taken by the Cassini spacecraft more than three years ago. Meanwhile, the Sun was temporarily obscured by Saturn, enabling the ship to point the camera towards the center of the solar system. Saturn is the 6th planet calculated from the distance from the Sun and the Earth is the third planet, meaning it is closer to the center.

With a distance of 1.4 billion km, the Earth and Moon in the photo are just two small bright spots between the giant Saturn belts. To the right of the picture is Saturn's A ring, near the right corner is the vast Encke Gap . Meanwhile, the narrower Keeler Gap is located near the center of the image. The left corner of the photo is the continuously changing F ring.

Cassini launched into space from Florida, USA, on October 15, 1997. In 2004, NASA's $ 3.3 billion ship came to Saturn and began exploring the planet. In 2017, after more than a decade of operation, the ship ran out of fuel. Scientists control it to plunge and burn in Saturn's atmosphere. This "suicide" action is to prevent Cassini from floating out of control in the universe and crash into the moons that may contain Saturn's life, infecting Earth bacteria with them.