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Regarding the pale blue dot. Has the photo been enhanced so we can see the earth, or is that actually how it looks? What are those color bands I'm seeing? Do

• danso 14y ago
  This is exactly what I was going to ask...it can't be that visible, right?...
• asolove 14y ago
  The Earth takes up much less than a pixel in the image, a combination of other factors cause it to be much more visible than it "should" be, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
• dbaupp 14y ago
  The colour bands are artifacts of the camera lenses and housing. From the wikipedia article[1]: The result of the brightness is a bright burned-out image with multiple reflections from the optics in the camera. The rays around the sun are a diffraction pattern of the calibration lamp which is mounted in front of the wide-angle lens. [..] In the photograph, Earth lies in the center of one of the scattered light rays resulting from taking the image with a small angle between the Sun and the Earth The following picture demonstrates the relative position of the sun and the Earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_System_Portrait_-_View_of_the_Sun,_Earth_and_Venus.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_System_Portrait_-_V... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Camera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Camera