# Stop taking the Voyager imagery for granted people! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 26, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065 "2012-02-26T17:36:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/21 "2012-02-27T01:11:28Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > … After that, _New Horizons_ is on its way out into interstellar space, like _Pioneer 10_, _Pioneer 11_, and the _Voyagers_ before it. I hope they’ve sent more Chuck Berry along with it. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ApZk6SfhiFo/hqdefault.jpg "Saturday Night Live - A Message from another planet") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApZk6SfhiFo) ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/22 "2012-02-27T01:24:22Z")
No matter where the missions are going, I do like it when they look back towards home. [https://www.nasa.gov/mov/260702main\_260627main\_nir2\_noglobe.mov](https://www.nasa.gov/mov/260702main_260627main_nir2_noglobe.mov) ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/23 "2012-02-27T01:54:40Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I’ve been and continue to be annoyed that we still haven’t gotten to Pluto! A Flash Fiction story on New Horizon encounter with Pluto. [New Frontiers](http://365tomorrows.com/10/12/new-frontiers/) ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/24 "2012-02-27T02:11:20Z")
OP, Thanks for starting this thread. I watched a documentary on voyager recently, and was thinking along same lines. Amazing that the probes are still going even after 30+ years. Engineers are an under-appreciated lot. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/25 "2012-02-27T02:22:46Z")
This is exactly why I never post links to pictures of me. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/26 "2012-02-27T02:42:05Z")
I follow the [Mars Rovers](https://twitter.com/#!/MarsRovers) on Twitter. That excites me. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/27 "2012-02-27T03:11:34Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > This is exactly why I never post links to pictures of me. You can give us periodic updates. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/28 "2012-02-27T03:36:38Z")
I don’t take it for granted at all. What’s amazing to me is how all of this has occurred within my lifetime. I was 1.5 years old when Sputnik was launched, too young to notice it, but I did notice and watch most of the manned space program as well as the unmanned probes. I think I was almost as fascinated by the Viking landers as I was by Apollo. I actually got to write code for GE for a NASA satellite ground terminal. I was part of a team, of course, so I only wrote a small piece. I don’t even know if that code is in use any more, but the downloads of some of the images you mention may have been scheduled using the code I wrote, as were possibly some shuttle communications. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/29 "2012-02-27T04:34:01Z")
What is a good web site for hi-res Voyager images? All I ever see is small pics posted in news articles. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/30 "2012-02-27T07:03:55Z")
Back when I was a teacher I ran the astronomy unit in an elementary school. I used a Starlab inflatable planetarium to do a star show, but also used a laptop with projector to show slides. I used a lot of the Voyager images of the planets as well as newer Hubble photos and the kids were always mesmerized. As for myself, I check in with the various probes every few weeks. I’m very excited to see Pluto three years from now. And I’m a big fan of the [Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter](http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/index.html). One of the great things about LRO is that in addition to the science it’s doing, the team has also made a point of imaging the Apollo landing sites. There’s something very cool about using new technology to show the remnants of our old technology in situ on the lunar surface. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/31 "2012-02-27T07:59:32Z")
The [NASA page on the Voyagers](http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/) has counters ticking off the distance they are from Earth and the sun in real time. They’re moving a hundred kilometres about every ten seconds in relation to us–but _the numbers are running backwards!?_ I have a guess as to why that is, but I’ll put it in a spoiler box in case anyone else wants to try. And in case I’m wrong. Because of where Earth is in its orbit. It has come from behind the sun, from Voyager’s POV, and is now moving around to the front, towards the spacecraft at a faster speed than the they’re travelling away from us. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/32 "2012-02-27T17:42:50Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I don’t take it for granted at all. What’s amazing to me is how all of this has occurred within my lifetime. I was 1.5 years old when Sputnik was launched, too young to notice it, but I did notice and watch most of the manned space program as well as the unmanned probes. I think I was almost as fascinated by the Viking landers as I was by Apollo. Yes, it’s funny now to think back on how, when I was a kid, we still knew almost nothing about the other planets beyond the most basic facts (and in some cases not even those; I think things like the rotation of Mercury and Venus were still not known). The only images we had were those fuzzy pictures taken from Earth telescopes. People pretty much knew there were no canals on Mars, but it was still possible to imagine life of some kind on either Mars or Venus. It was a different age, one which started with Galileo and came to an end just about the time I entered first grade. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/33 "2012-02-27T18:21:14Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > The [NASA page on the Voyagers](http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/) has counters ticking off the distance they are from Earth and the sun in real time. They’re moving a hundred kilometres about every ten seconds in relation to us–but _the numbers are running backwards!?_ I have a guess as to why that is, but I’ll put it in a spoiler box in case anyone else wants to try. And in case I’m wrong. > > Because of where Earth is in its orbit. It has come from behind the sun, from Voyager’s POV, and is now moving around to the front, towards the spacecraft at a faster speed than the they’re travelling away from us. Correct. The (admittedly rather small) “FAQ” link under the counters addresses this. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/34 "2012-02-27T18:42:15Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > The [NASA page on the Voyagers](http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/) has counters ticking off the distance they are from Earth and the sun in real time. They’re moving a hundred kilometres about every ten seconds in relation to us–but _the numbers are running backwards!?_ I have a guess as to why that is, but I’ll put it in a spoiler box in case anyone else wants to try. And in case I’m wrong. > > Because of where Earth is in its orbit. It has come from behind the sun, from Voyager’s POV, and is now moving around to the front, towards the spacecraft at a faster speed than the they’re travelling away from us. Either that, or else they’ve learned all that is learnable and are now returning to Earth in order to become one with their creator. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/35 "2012-02-27T19:14:41Z")
I don’t want to hijack, but I thinks folks here will appreciate this. I know the Pale Blue Dot is famous and all, but [this](http://www.hour25online.com/pix/huygens_composite-01_01a.jpg) photo (composite) is my favorite. The first time I saw it, it almost brought me to tears, and I’m not even sure why. That’s an image from the Huygens probe. During its descent onto the surface of Titan, it took those photos. That’s a shoreline of a methane lake on another world. You can even see what appear to be lines of combers advancing on the shore. Oh my God, that’s just amazingly, _incredibly_ powerful. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/36 "2012-02-27T20:31:49Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Correct. The (admittedly rather small) “FAQ” link under the counters addresses this. Ah yes, missed that. > [@MEBuckner](#): > > Either that, or else they’ve learned all that is learnable and are now returning to Earth in order to become one with their creator. So, we’re gods to them. Yippee!! (Well, the scientists and engineers at NASA would be, but I’m not too proud to take credit by association.) ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065/37 "2012-02-27T20:36:38Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > I don’t want to hijack, but I thinks folks here will appreciate this. I know the Pale Blue Dot is famous and all, but [this](http://www.hour25online.com/pix/huygens_composite-01_01a.jpg) photo (composite) is my favorite. The first time I saw it, it almost brought me to tears, and I’m not even sure why. That’s an image from the Huygens probe. During its descent onto the surface of Titan, it took those photos. That’s a shoreline of a methane lake on another world. You can even see what appear to be lines of combers advancing on the shore. > > Oh my God, that’s just amazingly, _incredibly_ powerful. I watched the webcast of that landing and felt I was watching science fiction come to life. And that’s the real answer to the OP–as amazing as the Voyager images were, there’s so much else that brings us to our knees in awe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-taking-the-voyager-imagery-for-granted-people/614065.md?page=1)