UHM-PRPDC-0199 PR Set: 2020-02

Image Title: Pale Blue Dot Revisited Original Source: NASA/JPL-CalTech Mission: Voyager 1 Instrument: ISS – Narrow Angle Camera Image Acquired: February 14th, 1990 Image Released: February 2nd, 2020 Frame Number: PIA23645

For the 30th anniversary of one of the most iconic images taken by NASA’s Voyager mission, a new version of the image known as “the Pale Blue Dot” has been produced. Planet Earth is visible as a bright speck within the sunbeam just right of center and appears softly blue, as in the original version published in 1990.

This updated version uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images. The view is a color composite created by combining images taken using green, blue and violet spectral filters by the Voyager 1 Narrow-Angle Camera. These images were taken just 34 minutes before Voyager 1 powered off its cameras forever.

In 1990, the Voyager project planned to shut off the Voyager 1 spacecraft's imaging cameras to conserve power and because the probe, along with its sibling Voyager 2, would not fly close enough to any other objects to take pictures. Before the shutdown, the mission commanded the probe to take a series of 60 images designed to produce what they termed the “Family Portrait of the Solar System.” Executed on Valentine’s Day 1990, this sequence returned images for making color views of six of the solar system’s planets and also imaged the Sun in monochrome.