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 September 18, 2012 The First Photo of the Earth and Moon
By 1977, mankind had already seen what its planet looked like from the Moon (thanks to the lunar orbiter) and sent astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface (confirming once and for all that no, there isn't cheese under all that regolith). But it wasn't until September 18 of that year that Earthlings got to see, for the first time, both heavenly bodies together in a single frame, as snapped by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft. The primary mission of Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft was to explore the moons and rings around Jupiter and Saturn. But as Voyager 1 left the Earth-Moon system, scientists had it look back. The first-of-its-kind photo-taken at 7.25 million miles from Earth while Voyager 1 was directly above Mount Everest-is actually a combination of three images shot through different color filters and developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Scientists used computer enhancement to brighten the Moon so that it could be seen clearly in the image.Though the Voyager spacecraft were only built to last 5 years, they're still kicking 35 years after launch: Both are currently at the edge of our solar system, in the Heliosheath-where solar wind starts to slow, thanks to pressure from interstellar gas-and are sending back data through the Deep Space Network. They have enough power to keep communicating through 2020.
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