'That's home, that's us': Iconic 'Pale Blue Dot' image by NASA's Voyager 1 turns 33

It has been 33 years since NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft made the world aware of its vulnerability in the vast cosmic arena. Captured on February 14, 1990, this picture named 'The Pale Blue Dot' shows Earth suspended in a sunbeam from a perspective more than six billion kilometres away from our planet.

The idea of photographing our planet from this staggering distance stemmed in the mind of Carl Sagan, the author and astronomer who helped develop the Voyager mission. Launched on September 5, 2022, Voyager 1 became the first man-made spacecraft to reach interstellar space on August 25, 2012. 

Story behind the iconic photo

(Artistic representation of the Voyager spacecraft; Image: NASA)

The picture was taken when the Voyager 1 spacecraft was speeding out of the solar system and mission controllers decided to point it toward Earth for one last time. This was done on the request of Sagan, who knew the image wouldn't be as detailed from this distance, a condition perfect to showcase Earth's vulnerability in this ever-expanding universe. This also became the final picture Voyager 1 took before its cameras were turned off forever to conserve energy for other instruments. 

(Astronomer Carl Sagan; Image: NASA)

NASA recalls that Voyager 1 also took a series of photos of Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. Similar to Earth, other planets also appeared no bigger than a dot but the mission controllers got what they wanted. These pictures are also remembered as Sagan's dream shot since it managed to capture the idea and the emotion. "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us," words that became immortal in his speech and his subsequent book titled "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space."

As for Sagan, he was a consultant and adviser to NASA from the 1950s and assisted the agency in developing missions including the Mariner 2 to Venus; the Mariner 9, Viking 1 and Viking 2 trips to Mars; the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions to the outer solar system and the Jupiter-bound Galileo mission.