The Pale Blue Dot
From six billion kilometres away, Voyager 1 looked back and saw all of Earth as a dot smaller than one pixel.
What’s going on
On 14 February 1990, Voyager 1 was heading out of the Solar System when it turned its camera back and photographed six planets. In the frame that caught Earth, our whole world filled just 0.12 of a pixel: a pale blue speck. The astronomer Carl Sagan had urged the team to take the picture. Soon afterwards the cameras were switched off for good, to save power for the long journey ahead.
Myth
The bright stripe through the picture is a beam of light in space.
Fact
It is sunlight scattered inside the camera, because Earth appeared close to the Sun.
Learn more
NASA Science Photojournal, “Solar System Portrait – Earth as ‘Pale Blue Dot’” (science.nasa.gov/photojournal).
Play Myth or Fact? Read out either the sentence on the card or the myth above. Can everyone tell which is true?
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