Voyager 1 confirms photos of Solar SystemIn 1990, radio signals were received from the U.S. space probe Voyager 1 that it successfully completed a four-hour series of about 60 images looking back into the Solar System, of the sun and six planets. The signals took 5-hr 26-min to travel 3,700 million miles back to Earth. The data was held on board the spacecraft until transmitted back to tracking stations on Earth later in the following month. The delay was while other planetary missions had a higher priority for use of the receiving antennas. The images were then assembled into a large mozaic, the “Family Portrait of the Planets.” Voyager 1 was launched on 5 Sep 1977, had travelled to the outer reaches of the solar system and climbed high above the plane of the orbits of the planets, enabling it to look down on the Solar System— the only spacecraft ever to do so.« |
