On this day in space! Sept. 18, 1977: Voyager 1 takes 1st photo of Earth-moon system

On Sept. 18, 1977, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft took its first photo of Earth and the moon. It was the first time both the Earth and the moon were captured in a single frame.

At the time, Voyager 1 was 7.25 million miles (11.7 million kilometers) away from Earth. It launched about two weeks earlier on a mission to explore the outer planets.

—Confirmed: Voyager 1 in Interstellar Space

—Voyager 1 Spacecraft's Road to Interstellar Space: A Photo Timeline

Voyager 1 passed through the asteroid belt and visited Jupiter and Saturn. Then it took a sharp turn and started heading straight out of the plane of the solar system.

This picture of Earth and the moon in a single frame &mdash; the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft &mdash; was recorded Sept. 18, 1977, by NASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft at a distance of 7.25 million miles (11.7 million km) from Earth. Because Earth is many times brighter than the moon, the moon was artificially brightened by a factor of three relative to the Earth by computer enhancement so that both bodies would show clearly in the prints. — This picture of Earth and the moon in a single frame — the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft — was recorded Sept. 18, 1977, by NASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft at a distance of 7.25 million miles (11.7 million km) from Earth. Because Earth is many times brighter than the moon, the moon was artificially brightened by a factor of three relative to the Earth by computer enhancement so that both bodies would show clearly in the prints. (Image credit: NASA)

Before Voyager 1 started heading toward interstellar space, Carl Sagan convinced NASA to turn its cameras around one last time to take a family portrait of all the planets in the solar system. This family portrait shows Earth as a tiny speck in a ray of sunshine. It is now famously known as the "Pale Blue Dot."

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Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.

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