NASA releases portrait of a planet waving at Saturn

Michael Winter | USA TODAY

Last month, the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn beamed back a rare, faraway photo of Earth. To mark the occasion, NASA asked Astroboys and girls around the world to snap selfies of themselves waving at the moment the probe tripped the shutter from almost a billion miles away.

The results: People from 30 U.S. states and more than 40 countries shared more than 1,400 selfies on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Google+ and email, and NASA has created a zoomable, earthly mosaic.

"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," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

She said the photo shoot marked "the first time inhabitants of Earth had advance notice that our picture was being taken from interplanetary distances."

Cassini's July 19 photo of Earth was part of a larger image collection of the Saturn system, and scientists expect to release a mosaic in several weeks. Watch this space.