Family Portrait (Voyager)
The Family Portrait, or sometimes Portrait of the Planets, is an image of the Solar System acquired by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990 from a distance of approximately 6 billion kilometers.
The picture is a mosaic of 60 individual frames. They were the last pictures taken by either Voyager spacecraft. It is the source of the famous "Pale Blue Dot" image of the Earth. Astronomer Carl Sagan, who was part of the Voyager imaging team, campaigned for many years to have the pictures taken.
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Six planets are visible in the mosaic. From left to right: Jupiter, Earth, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. The Sun, a small point of light at this distance, is centered in the image while 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 dwarf planet Pluto was not included in the mosaic because of its small size and distance from the Sun.
The image does not have a "natural look". This is because the individual images were acquired using various filters at varying exposures to bring out as much detail as possible. The Sun was imaged with the darkest filter and shortest exposure available, to avoid damaging the Imaging Science System vidicon tubes. The majority of the images were acquired with the Wide-Angle Camera, while the close-up views of the planets were acquired using the Narrow-Angle Camera.
The images were acquired at a distance of approximately 40.11 AU from Earth and approximately 32° above the ecliptic plane. Of the two Voyager spacecraft, Voyager 1 was chosen for the mosaic because its trajectory had taken it above the plane of the Solar System and unlike Voyager 2, was in a position to view Jupiter free of light disturbances by the Sun's glare.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- BBC: The Planets, episode eight: Destiny
[edit] External links
- NASA: Visible Earth
- Planetary Society: Voyager's Last View
- NSSDC Photo Gallery: Solar System Family Portrait
- "Voyager Family Portrait" Planets and description
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