Voyager 1 photographs the solar system from outside it
On its last day of imaging, Voyager 1 turned its cameras back towards the Sun and took about sixty frames covering most of the planetary system, including one in which Earth occupies less than a pixel. The observation had been argued for over several years by Carl Sagan against the objection — which was correct — that it would return no science. The cameras were switched off immediately afterwards to conserve power and have never been used since.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Voyager 1 · mission · Interstellar space, in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus · not located
- Pale Blue Dot · artefact · not located
- Carl Sagan · person · United States · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Sagan's account of the 14 February 1990 family-portrait observation, of his advocacy for taking it and of what the resulting image of Earth as a sub-pixel point signifies. V55 verification basis: NOT CONSULTED IN THIS RUN. The book is cited as the origin of the name and of the argument; no passage is quoted and no page reference is given, because none was checked.
Random House, New York · 1994 · Partly verified
Sagan, C., Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (Random House, 1994)
Recorded on Voyager 1
- The full Grand Tour is cancelled and rebuilt as a two-spacecraft mission
- Voyager 1 launches
- Voyager 1 closest approach to Jupiter
- Active volcanism found on Io
- Voyager 1 passes Saturn and Titan, and leaves the plane of the planets
- Voyager 1 photographs the solar system from outside it
- Voyager 1 crosses the termination shock at about 94 AU
- Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause at 121.6 AU
- The 2012 crossing is confirmed from plasma oscillations
- Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem is switched off
- Voyager 1's low-energy charged particle instrument due for shutdown
- Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem is switched off · 2025-02-25
- Voyager 1's low-energy charged particle instrument due for shutdown · 2026 (announced plan)
- Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth · 2026-11-18 02:16 PST (computed)
- The 2012 crossing is confirmed from plasma oscillations · 2013-09-12
- Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause at 121.6 AU · 2012-08-25
- Voyager 1 crosses the termination shock at about 94 AU · 2004-12-16
- Voyager 1 passes Saturn and Titan, and leaves the plane of the planets · 1980-11-12
- Active volcanism found on Io · 1979-03-08