This picture of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon -- the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft -- was recorded Sept. 18, 1977, by NASA's Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles (11.66 million kilometers) from Earth. The Moon is at the top of the picture and beyond the Earth as viewed by Voyager. In the picture are eastern Asia. the western Pacific Ocean and part of the Arctic. Voyager 1 was directly above Mt. Everest (on the right side of the planet at 25 degrees north latitude) when the picture was taken. The photo was made from three images taken through color filters, then processed by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Because the 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. Two Voyager spacecraft are en route to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond. Voyager 2 was launched Aug. 20, 1977; Voyager 1 was launched Sept. 5. They will arrive at Jupiter in 1979 and at Saturn in 1980 and 1981. JPL is responsible for the Voyager mission for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
