20 awe-inspiring images of our solar system from Voyager 1
35 years ago, the Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched from Earth and ventured out into the galaxy. It's the farthest man-made object from home, at over 11 billion miles from us. Voyager's mission is to just keep on heading out into the final frontier (at least until it's picked up and brought back in time for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in the mid-2270s), and it's currently in the process of exiting our solar system and entering interstellar space.
On its way out of the solar system, Voyager 1 passed Jupiter and Saturn, sending back spectacular high resolution pictures of the gas giants and their moons. In the gallery below, we've chosen some of our favorite pictures from Voyager's tour, along with a few snapshots of the spacecraft itself before it left Earth.
As you look through these pics, just think about the experience that this spacecraft has had over the last three decades. It's spent a long, lonely time in the depths of space, punctuated by what must have been some absolutely circuit-blowing in-person encounters with Jupiter and Saturn. And now, Voyager 1 is on a long, lonely journey out into the Milky Way.
We'll keep hearing from the spacecraft until 2025 or so, at which point it may not have enough power to keep transmitting. Travelling nearly 11 miles every second, within about 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will pass within a light year or so of a red dwarf star in the constellation Camelopardalis. It's doubtful that the system is inhabited, but aliens might be there sightseeing or something, and if they notice our little robotic spacecraft, they'll be able to track it back to Earth.
Anyway, until ET arrives, check out these pics from a little closer to home, but still very far away.
Via NASA
Editor's Note: Unless noted, the captions below come from NASA. Some have been lightly edited for space.
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4. Voyager Launch Voyager 1 launches aboard a Titan III on September 5, 1977. Via NASA
1. Voyager Instruments "Voyager's prime mission science payload consisted of 10 instruments (11 investigations including radio science). With the exception of the Voyager 1 PLS instrument, all of the above are working well and are capable of continuing operations in the expected environment." (Image/Caption: NASA)
2. Voyager Golden Record "July 29, 1977 — A gold-plated record with "Sound of Earth" is mounted on its flight bracket on the mission module of the Voyager 1 spacecraft. The Voyagers are to enter galactic space after exploring the Solar System's giant planets." Caption via NASA
3. Voyager Launch Prep "August 29, 1977 — The Voyager-1 spacecraft was reencapsulated within its payload in Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility-1 today. The spacecraft is to be mated with Titan/Centaur-6 at Launch Complex 41 later this week. Launch is scheduled for no earlier than Sept. 5." Caption via NASA
5. Earth and Moon "This picture of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon — the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft — was recorded Sept. 18, 1977, by NASA's Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles (11.66 million kilometers) from Earth. The Moon is at the top of the picture and beyond the Earth as viewed by Voyager." Caption via NASA
6. Earth and Venus "This color image of the sun, Earth and Venus was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft Feb. 14, 1990, when it was approximately 32 degrees above the plane of the ecliptic and at a slant-range distance of approximately 4 billion miles. It is the first — and may be the only — time that we will ever see our solar system from such a vantage point." Caption via NASA
7. Jupiter "On February 5, 1979, Voyager 1 made its closest approach to Jupiter since early 1974 and 1975 when Pioneers 10 and 11 made their voyages to Jupiter and beyond. Voyager 1 completed its Jupiter encounter in early April, after taking almost 19,000 pictures." Caption via NASA
8. Jupiter "This dramatic view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings was obtained by Voyager 1 on Feb. 25, 1979, when the spacecraft was 5.7 million miles (9.2 million kilometers) from Jupiter. Cloud details as small as 100 miles (160 kilometers) across can be seen here." Caption via NASA
9. Jupiter "Voyager 1 image of the clouds of Jupiter to the southeast of the Great Red Spot. This is a false color image of Jupiter, with exaggerated colors to enhance subtle variations in color and shading in order to bring out details of the cloud structure and atmospheric dynamics." Caption via NASA
10. Ganymede "This picture of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest satellite, was taken by Voyager 1 on the afternoon of March 5, 1979 from a range of 253,000 kilometers (151,800 miles). The picture is centered at 66 south latitude and 3 longitude and shows the south western limb region of Ganymede. The smallest features visible are about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) across." Caption via NASA
11. Io "This photo of Jupiter's satellite Io was taken by Voyager 1 about 4:30 p.m. (PST) March 2, 1979. The spacecraft was about 5 million miles (8.3 million kilometers away). Voyager 1 was mapping Jupiter with the cameras and infrared instrument at the time the picture was taken. The hemisphere seen here is the one that always faces away from Jupiter. This photo shows details on Io never before seen." Caption via NASA
12. Io "This picture of Io, the innermost Galilean satellite, was taken by Voyager 1 on the morning of March 5, 1979 at a range of 377,000 kilometers (226,200 miles). The smallest features visible are about 10 kilometers (6 miles) across." Caption via NASA
13. Io "Voyager 1 acquired this image of Io on March 4 at 5:30 p.m. (PST). An enormous volcanic explosion can be seen over Io's bright limb. The brightness of the plume has been increased, whereas the relative color of the plume has been preserved. At this time solid material had been thrown up to an altitude of about 100 miles. This requires an ejection velocity from the volcanic vent of about 1200 miles per hour." Caption via NASA
14. Io "The eruption of Pele on Jupiter's moon Io. The volcanic plume rises 300 kilometers above the surface in an umbrella-like shape. The plume fallout covers an area the size of Alaska. The vent is a dark spot just north of the triangular-shaped plateau (right center). To the left, the surface is covered by colorful lava flows rich in sulfur." Caption via NASA
15. Jupiter "This view of the region just to the east of the Red Spot is seen in greatly exaggerated color. The colors do not represent the true hues seen in the Jovian atmosphere but have been produced by special computer processing to enhance subtle variations in both color and shading." Caption via NASA
16. Jupiter "This view of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1. This image was taken through color filters and recombined to produce the color image. This photo was assembled from three black and white negatives by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory." Caption via NASA
17. Jupiter "This view of the Great Red Spot is seen in greatly exaggerated color. The colors do not represent the true hues seen in the Jovian atmosphere but have been produced by special computer processing to enhance subtle variations in both color and shading." Caption via NASA
18. Jupiter at Night "This Voyager 1 image was taken of Jupiter's darkside on March 5, 1979. The picture is a 3 minute, 12 second exposure by the wide angle camera taken when the spacecraft was in Jupiter's shadow. Jupiter's north pole is on the limb toward the upper center. The long bright double streak is an aurora on Jupiter's limb near its north pole. The other bright spots probably are lightning but could be auroral features." Caption via NASA
19. Saturn "The crescent of Saturn, the planet's rings and their shadows are seen in this Voyager 1 image taken Nov. 13, 1980 at a distance of 1,500,000 kilometers (930,000 miles) as the spacecraft began to leave the Saturn system. The bright limb of Saturn is clearly visible through the A, B, and C rings. The dark band cutting through the crescent is the shadow of the rings." Caption via NASA
20. Dione "Dione, seen here against the disk of Saturn, is a bright, white, icy object like the other inner satellites. There is a difference in character between its leading and trailing hemispheres; the trailing side, seen on the left in this image, shows a pattern of bright wispy streaks against a darker background." Caption via NASA
21. Dione "Many large impact craters are seen in this view of the Saturnian moon Dione taken by NASA's Voyager 1 on Nov. 12, 1980 from a range of about 240,000 kilometers (149,000 miles). Bright radiating patterns probably represent debris rays thrown out of impact craters; other bright areas may be topographic ridges and valleys." Caption via NASA
22. Saturn "Voyager 1 looked back at Saturn on Nov. 16, 1980, four days after the spacecraft flew past the planet, to observe the appearance of Saturn and its rings from this unique perspective. A few of the spoke-like ring features discovered by Voyager appear in the rings as bright patches in this image, taken at a distance of 5.3 million km (3.3 million miles) from the planet." Caption via NASA
23. Solar System Portrait "The cameras of Voyager 1 on Feb. 14, 1990, pointed back toward the sun and took a series of pictures of the sun and the planets, making the first ever "portrait" of our solar system as seen from the outside. In the course of taking this mosaic consisting of a total of 60 frames, Voyager 1 made several images of the inner solar system from a distance of approximately 4 billion miles and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane." Caption via NASA
24. Solar System Portrait "These six narrow-angle color images were made from the first ever 'portrait' of the solar system taken by Voyager 1. Mercury is too close to the sun to be seen. Mars was not detectable by the Voyager cameras due to scattered sunlight in the optics, and Pluto was not included in the mosaic because of its small size and distance from the sun. These blown-up images, left to right and top to bottom are Venus, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, Uranus, Neptune." Caption via NASA
