I have very little knowledge about this, how much post processing would go into a picture like this one, if any?
I presume there's effort put into highlighting the Earth because I find it hard to believe that Earth would be even be visible as a dot from that distance.
Saturn, with 10x the diameter of Earth, is visible as a faint disk from Earth, without a telescope, and with atmosphere in the way. Saturn's moon Titan, 40% of the diameter of Earth, is visible with a small telescope.
I think the integration time for the image was around 20 minutes.
Bottom line, I think seeing Earth was no big deal (with the Sun behind Saturn). The issue with this image was to capture as much fine detail in the rings as possible.
Agreed! This is so amazing. Something about it makes me smile like I can't help it. Space always makes me feel small, but in a good way.
Sad bit: "Almost 20,000 people participated..." At first glance that might seem like a lot until you realize that it's 0.000003% of the population of this planet. Amazing things like this happen and literally nobody cares.
It's beautiful and so far less ominous than Carl Sagan's pale blue dot. Instead of being lost in the vastness, we are part of someone else's sky, connected not alone.
