( CNN ) -- As far as we know , there are no Saturnians on Saturn . There are no sirens on Titan nor large , monolithic stargates floating just outside Iapetus . And even if there were , they could n't see us . Not in much detail , anyway . We 're more than a billion kilometers away . But we 're going to wave and smile at them anyway . At least , that 's the plan hatched by NASA and `` The Day the Earth Smiled , '' organized by Cassini Imaging Team Leader Carolyn Porco . On Friday , the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft -- serving humanity since 1997 and in orbit around the ringed giant since 2004 -- will take pictures of Saturn and its rings during a solar eclipse . Included in the images , though just the barest dot , will be our Big Blue Marble . Porco has high hopes for the extraterrestrial picture-taking , which will occur from 21:27 to 21:42 UTC . ( That 's 5:27 p.m. to 5:42 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time in the United States , subtracting an hour for each time zone to the west . ) `` I hope , at the appropriate time , that you stop what you 're doing , go outside , gather together with friends and family ... and marvel at your own existence and that of all life on planet Earth , '' she writes on her website . `` Then , by all means , rejoice ! '' NASA has a catchier name for the image shoot . The agency is calling it `` The First Interplanetary Photobomb . '' The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is asking viewers to `` wave at Saturn . '' Hubble telescope spots blue planet where it rains glass . Is there an astronomical point to such celebrating ? Well , NASA points out , it 's not like Earth is often photographed from the far reaches of outer space . `` Opportunities to image Earth from the outer solar system are rare , '' the agency says in its `` Photobomb '' press release . `` Since the Space Age began , there have been only two images of Earth from the outer solar system . '' The space agency is going to snap images from the other side of the solar system as well . NASA 's MESSENGER spacecraft is in orbit around Mercury , and staffers `` realized Earth is coincidentally expected to appear in some images taken in a search for natural satellites around Mercury on July 19 and 20 , '' NASA and JPL said in a press release . So MESSENGER will take photos at 7:49 a.m. , 8:38 a.m. and 9:41 a.m. EDT ( 11:49 , 12:38 and 13:41 UTC ) on both days , NASA and JPL said . ( Yeah , the Friday opportunity is gone , but you still have Saturday for the salute to Mercury . ) The release said that NASA was inspired , in part , by the Cassini team . And maybe the ultimate point of all this should be more existential , anyway . On Saturday , we 'll celebrate the 44th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing . Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 's stroll on the moon 's surface is still considered one of the most amazing achievements in human history . As The Onion famously once said in a headline , `` Holy S*** , Man Walks on F****** Moon . '' We have n't been back to the moon since 1972 , but the steady stream of space images from NASA and others still has the ability to make us contemplate the sheer wonder of it all . So , what can it hurt ? Take a few minutes and smile and wave for Earth . You never know who might be watching . Read more : All the world 's gold came from collisions of dead stars , scientists say .
Cassini leader , JPL urging Earthlings to smile , wave at Saturn . Cassini spacecraft taking images of Saturn on Friday . Comment: