                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2024 July 13

                        Solar System Family Portrait
                     Image Credit: Voyager Project, NASA

   Explanation: In 1990, cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the
   Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back to make this first ever Solar System
   family portrait. The complete portrait is a 60 frame mosaic made from a
   vantage point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. In it, Voyager's
   wide-angle camera frames sweep through the inner Solar System at the
   left, linking up with ice giant Neptune, the Solar System's outermost
   planet, at the far right. Positions for Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn,
   Uranus, and Neptune are indicated by letters, while the Sun is the
   bright spot near the center of the circle of frames. The inset frames
   for each of the planets are from Voyager's narrow-field camera. Unseen
   in the portrait are Mercury, too close to the Sun to be detected, and
   Mars, unfortunately hidden by sunlight scattered in the camera's
   optical system. Closer to the Sun than Neptune at the time, small,
   faint Pluto's position was not covered. In 2024 Voyager 1, NASA’s
   longest-running and most-distant spacecraft, is some 15 billion miles
   away, operating in interstellar space.

                 Tomorrow's picture: galaxy vs grain of sand
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

