Voyager 1's Iconic Portrait of the Solar System Turned 25 on Valentine's Day

The iconic images of our solar system's planets from NASA's Voyager mission have officially turned 25 as of Feb. 14. Now, NASA is taking a look back at some of these images, which were the first-ever pictures of the planets to be taken from beyond Neptune.

The "family portrait" of pictures captures Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Earth and Venus from Voyager 1's unique vantage point. That said, a few planets didn't make it. Mars had too little sunlight, Mercury was too close to the sun and the dwarf planet, Pluto was too dim for the picture.

Actually taking these pictures wasn't part of the original plan for Voyager 1. However, Carl Sagan, a member of the Voyager imaging team at the team, had the idea of pointing the spacecraft back toward Earth to have a "last look."

"Twenty-five years ago, Voyager 1 looked back toward Earth and saw a 'pale blue dot,' and image that continues to inspire wonderment about the spot we call home," said Ed Stone, project scientist for the Voyager mission, in a news release.

The image of Earth contains scattered light that resembles a beam of sunlight, which is an artifact of the camera itself that makes the tiny Earth appear even more dramatic. At the time of the picture, Voyager one was about 40 astronomical units from the sun; one astronomical unit is equal to 93 million miles.

Today, Voyager 1 is at a distance of 130 astronomical units, which makes it the furthest human-made object from Earth. It still regularly communicates with our planet, and is now sending back data about interstellar space, the space between the stars. Its twin, Voyager 2, is also journeying toward interstellar space.

For more information about the Voyager mission, you can visit NASA's website.

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