The year is 1990, and Voyager 1 is speeding through space at 39,000 miles per hour (17.43 kilometers per second). Its camera has been turned off for ten years in order to save power and memory for future exploration. But the urge to look back and take one last glance at home is irrepressible. So on February 14 the camera aboard Voyager 1 is turned on for a few minutes. From 3.7 billion miles (59.5 billion kilometers) out, Voyager 1 snaps sixty photos to make the most distant portrait of the solar system ever. It is a valentine from outer space. The image of planet Earth is so small it is easily missed: a "pale blue dot" in a vast void. But the message is clear. It is a note to humanity, signed in a sunbeam: Take good care. Excerpted from Voyager's Greatest Hits: 8 Tracks for the Epic Trek to Interstellar Space by Alexandra Siy All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
