Both Voyagers’ cameras have been turned off, but neither craft would see much even if they were still on.
This simulated view shows Voyager 1’s view back through the solar system, creating a “family portrait” of the planets: Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These were the last images taken by the craft, on Feb. 14, 1990, before its camera was shut off to preserve power. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Are either of the Voyager spacecraft capable of taking a picture of our solar system from their current interstellar locations?
Jake Cunningham
Eugene, Oregon
No, but let’s talk about how the spacecraft that once dazzled scientists and the public alike with images of our solar system came to this state.
To preserve power and memory, mission operators turned off all the Voyager cameras between late 1989 and early 1990, when they had wrapped up their tour of the solar system. Voyager 1 took the last picture, affectionately known as the solar system family portrait, on Feb. 14, 1990. While the spacecraft are still functioning today, most of their other instruments have also been turned off for the same reasons. Plus, in the depths of interstellar space, there simply isn’t much to observe.
The spacecraft still have three functioning instruments each, built to measure cosmic rays, magnetic fields, charged particles, and plasma waves — the science that is valuable in otherwise empty space. A separate plasma science instrument failed on Voyager 1 in 1980 and was turned off in 2007, but it remained working on Voyager 2 until operators turned it off in October 2024. Mission operators expect the crafts to send at least engineering data back until 2036.
NASA points out that even if Mission Control could turn the cameras back on, the computers and software that once would have analyzed the data simply don’t exist anymore. Furthermore, the years of radiation and cold exposure have probably damaged the cameras. Added to that, the Voyagers’ software is nearly 50 years old, and operators are extremely cautious about sending any signals to the spacecraft, wary of inducing any errors in the antiquated system.
And if the cameras were turned on, the dark of space means they wouldn’t image anything in particular. The cameras were built to take pictures of big planets and their moons that gleamed in the Sun’s light as Voyager buzzed by. The spacecraft don’t have telescopes, so anything they see would be merely a dim point of light.
To put it in perspective, Saturn orbits at a distance of 9.5 astronomical units (AU, where 1 AU is the average distance between Earth and the Sun of 93 million miles [150 million kilometers]). Voyager 2 (the closer of the twin spacecraft), is currently 140 AU from the Sun, meaning you are 16 times closer to Saturn than Voyager is.
So even if they could take a picture, your phone could take a much better one. What a difference time and distance make!
Korey Haynes
Contributing Editor
