NASA releases picture of Earthlings waving at Saturn

NASA has released a collage of people around the world waving towards the planet Saturn last month.

On July 19th, the Cassini spacecraft which is orbiting the planet turned around to take a picture of Earth as part of a larger set of images it was collecting of the Saturn system.

So, to mark the occasion NASA asked people across the globe to send in pictures of them waving at the planet 900 million miles away.

More than 1400 pictures poured in from 40 countries and 30 US states via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Google+ and email.

Although our planet appeared as a bright dot, just a pixel, on the final image, NASA composed the collage as a tribute to all those who sent in their pictures, using an image of Earth as the base image.

"Thanks to all of you, near and far, old and young, who joined the Cassini mission in marking the first time inhabitants of Earth had advance notice that our picture was being taken from interplanetary distances," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"While Earth is too small in the images Cassini obtained to distinguish any individual human beings, the mission has put together this collage so that we can celebrate all your waving hands, uplifted paws, smiling faces and artwork."

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