The First Time We Met All The Planets Up Close

Once upon a time there were nine planets in our solar system. With the flyby of the now-dwarf planet Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA has now seen all of them up close. So the space agency compiled a mini-collection of its first encounters with these worlds.MercuryMedia Platforms Design TeamMariner 10, launched in 1974, imaged Mercury throughout late 1974 and 1975.VenusMedia Platforms Design TeamNASA’s Mariner 10 mission took this shot of Venus on Feb. 5, 1974. It has been color-enhanced to bring out Venus’s cloudy atmosphere as the human eye would see it.EarthMedia Platforms Design TeamOne of the most famous space images of all time, “Earthrise” was captured by Apollo 8 astronauts on Christmas Eve, 1968.MarsMedia Platforms Design TeamOn July 15, 1965, Mariner 4 sent this image of Mars from 7,829 miles away. JupiterMedia Platforms Design TeamVoyager 1’s first good shot of Jupiter, shot in the spring of 1979.(Now, NASA’s being a bit revisionist here. Pioneer 10 actually captured these images of Jupiter in 1973, though the quality can’t quite match that of Voyager images.)Media Platforms Design TeamSaturnMedia Platforms Design TeamVoyager 1’s view of Saturn on Nov. 16, 1980.Similar to what happened with Jupiter, Pioneer 11 captured grainer pics of Saturn in 1973:Media Platforms Design TeamUranusMedia Platforms Design TeamVoyager 2 sees Uranus in January 1986.NeptuneMedia Platforms Design TeamVoyager 2’s view of Neptune from 4.4 million miles away.PlutoMedia Platforms Design TeamVia New Horizons. This color version of the July 3, 2015 LORRI image was created by adding color data from the Ralph instrument gathered earlier in the mission.Here is the last shot New Horizons sent home before beginning the July 14 flyby:Media Platforms Design TeamTo see how our view of Pluto has changed during New Horizons’ approach, check out The Epic Story of How We Got to Pluto.Andrew MosemanSite DirectorAndrew’s from Nebraska. His work has also appeared in Discover, The Awl, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Playboy, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn with two cats and a snake.