July 17, 2016

Earth seen by Voyager 1 spacecraft from 4 billion miles away

Earth from Space

This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, dubbed 'Pale Blue Dot', is a part of the first ever 'portrait' of the Solar System taken by Voyager 1. The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the Solar System from a distance of more than 4 billion miles from Earth and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic. From Voyager's great distance Earth is a mere point of light, less than the size of a picture element even in the narrow-angle camera. Earth was a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size. Coincidentally, Earth lies right in the center of one of the scattered light rays resulting from taking the image so close to the Sun. This blown-up image of the Earth was taken through three color filters -- violet, blue and green -- and recombined to produce the color image. The background features in the image are artifacts resulting from the magnification.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL
Explanation from: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00452

7 comments:

  1. I have always been enchanted with this image. My home. For now.

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  3. Siempre me ha impresionado esta foto....El pálido punto azul.

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  4. Suspended in a beam of light,
    So nearly tumbled out of sight
    A fraction of a pixel seen
    Where all my little life has been.
    Where all my tiny mind unfolds
    Where all my simple dreams and goals
    Have found a stage to yell and shout
    The few poor lines I’ve blurted out.

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  5. Nature has wonders

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