The 'Pale Blue Dot' photograph of Earth was taken on Wednesday 14 February, 1990 by the Voyager 1 probe from a record distance of about 6.4 billion kilometers and 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. The striking photograph almost never happened. Early on in Voyager's mission, Carl Sagan had tried to get the look back at Earth, but others on the team worried that the Sun would end up frying the camera. But eventually, with the mission winding down, Sagan finally got his wish — a last minute Valentine's Day gift in 1990.

Caught in the center of scattered light rays (a result of taking the picture so close to the Sun), Earth appears as a tiny point of light, a crescent only 0.12 pixel in size.