Family Portrait (Voyager)
Encyclopedia
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.
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
acquired by Voyager 1
Voyager 1
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...
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
Pale Blue Dot
The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a record distance of about kilometers from Earth, as part of the solar system Family Portrait series of images. In the photograph, Earth is shown as a tiny dot against the vastness of space...
" image of the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. Astronomer Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
, who was part of the Voyager imaging team, campaigned for many years to have the pictures taken.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
, Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
, Saturn
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...
, Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...
, Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
. The Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
, a small point of light at this distance, is centered in the image while Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
is too close to the Sun to be seen, Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
was not detectable by the Voyager cameras due to scattered sunlight in the optics, and dwarf planet
Dwarf planet
A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be spherical as a result of its own gravity but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals and is not a satellite...
Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
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
Astronomical unit
An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....
from Earth and approximately 32° above the ecliptic
Ecliptic
The ecliptic is the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. In more accurate terms, it is the intersection of the celestial sphere with the ecliptic plane, which is the geometric plane containing the mean orbit of the Earth around the Sun...
plane. Of the two Voyager
Voyager program
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
spacecraft, Voyager 1 was chosen for the mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
because its trajectory had taken it above the plane of the Solar System and unlike Voyager 2
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space...
, was in a position to view Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
free of light disturbances by the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
's glare.