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.

                              2020 February 14

                              The Pale Blue Dot
              Image Credit: Voyager Project, NASA, JPL-Caltech

   Explanation: On Valentine's Day in 1990, cruising four billion miles
   from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back one last time to
   make the first ever Solar System family portrait. The portrait consists
   of the Sun and six planets in a 60 frame mosaic made from a vantage
   point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. Planet Earth was captured
   within a single pixel in this single frame. It's the pale blue dot
   within the sunbeam just right of center in this reprocessed version of
   the now famous view from Voyager. Astronomer Carl Sagan originated the
   idea of using Voyager's camera to look back toward home from a distant
   perspective. Thirty years later, on this Valentine's day, look again at
   the pale blue dot.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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