Voyager 1 taking Solar System family portrait. Illustration showing Voyager 1's perspective as it took its final series of images, known as the 'Family Portrait of the Solar System', which included the Sun and six of the eight planets. The Sun is the bright spot at upper left and the positions of the planets are marked by their initial letters. The six colour insets show the images of the planets; Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Mercury and Mars are not shown. Voyager 1 was launched on 5 September 1977 and visited Jupiter and Saturn before swinging upwards out of the plane of the solar system. The family portrait, taken on 14 February, 1990, represents its final view of the solar system as it speeds off into outer space. |