Iconic 'pale blue dot' photo - Carl Sagan's idea - turns 30
Friday, February 14, 2020 - 09:40
in Astronomy & Space
The iconic photograph of planet Earth from distant space - the "pale blue dot" - was taken 30 years ago - Feb. 14, 1990, at a distance of 3.7 billion miles, by the NASA spacecraft Voyager 1 as it zipped toward the far edge of the solar system. The late Cornell astronomy professor Carl Sagan came up with the idea for the snapshot, and coined the phrase.