Editing Openai/69757642-5790-800f-a981-f89441b64248 (section)

=== Assistant: I looked at the LinkedIn post you shared the one that starts “After 48 years of travel, NASA’s Voyager 1 is nearing one… ===
I looked at the LinkedIn post you shared (the one that starts “After 48 years of travel, NASA’s Voyager 1 is nearing one light-day from Earth…”) and confirmed the text — but I cannot view or analyze the specific image in that post directly without you uploading it here, because LinkedIn restricts what can be accessed publicly from the link alone. LinkedIn<ref>{{cite web|title=LinkedIn|url=https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alvinfsc_after-48-years-of-travel-nasa-s-voyager-activity-7421000826577420288-p64r|publisher=linkedin.com|access-date=2026-01-24}}</ref>

Here’s how to think about whether such an image is AI-generated or real:

===== NASA’s Voyager missions did take real photos — like the iconic Pale Blue Dot and the Solar System Family Portrait — from extremely far away. Those are genuine spacecraft photos captured in 1990 using Voyager 1’s cameras. NASA Science<ref>{{cite web|title=NASA Science|url=https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/|publisher=NASA Science|access-date=2026-01-24}}</ref> =====

However, Voyager’s cameras have been powered off for decades, and it no longer captures new images like a modern camera. Most recent “images” shared on social media about Voyager are either:
* Artist illustrations or concept visuals (released by NASA/JPL)
* Graphics created to illustrate data or the probe’s location
* Infographics or memes produced by users
* AI-generated or composite visuals not from spacecraft data

So if the image in the LinkedIn post looks like a high-resolution new photograph of Voyager in deep space, that’s very likely not an actual photograph from the spacecraft, because Voyager isn’t taking new photos 48 years after launch.

===== AI and other synthetic graphics are now very good at producing space scenes. Even trained humans often struggle to distinguish AI vs real images from pixels alone. arXiv<ref>{{cite web|title=arXiv|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.22236|publisher=arxiv.org|access-date=2026-01-24}}</ref> =====

Here are some tell-tale signs the image might be AI or an illustration:
* Too clean or stylized visuals (real space photos tend to have noise, grain, and camera artifacts).
* Unusual lighting that doesn’t match real physics (AI can misinterpret shadow direction or light scattering).
* Unrealistic detail on a spacecraft that hasn’t been imaged up close in decades.

===== Real historic Voyager imagery you can find in NASA archives includes: =====
* The Pale Blue Dot showing Earth as a tiny speck far from the Sun. NASA Science<ref>{{cite web|title=NASA Science|url=https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/|publisher=NASA Science|access-date=2026-01-24}}</ref>
* The Solar System Family Portrait — a mosaic from 60 frames of planets. Wikipedia<ref>{{cite web|title=Wikipedia|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Portrait_%28Voyager%29|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2026-01-24}}</ref>
* Actual engineering and spacecraft images from before launch. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)<ref>{{cite web|title=NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)|url=https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager-image-gallery|publisher=NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)|access-date=2026-01-24}}</ref>

===== - Real NASA images of Voyager exist, but Voyager hasn’t taken new camera images in decades. =====
* If the LinkedIn image claims to show a new, photograph-like view of Voyager or the distant cosmos, it’s very likely an illustration, AI-generated graphic, or conceptual art, not an authentic photo taken by the spacecraft.
* Without seeing the actual image here, I can’t definitively say whether that specific image is AI-made, but the context and NASA’s mission status strongly suggest it’s not a real new photograph from Voyager.

If you want, you can upload the image here, and I’ll analyze visual cues in it to help determine whether it’s AI-generated, an illustration, or based on real NASA data.