In 1990, at Sagan's suggestion, Voyager 1 took a portrait of Earth from how many billion kilometers away?

In 1990, at Carl Sagan's suggestion, Voyager 1 photographed Earth from about 6 billion kilometers away. The resulting image became known as the Pale Blue Dot, showing our planet as a tiny blue-white speck suspended in a vast field of space.

Voyager 1 took the photograph on February 14, 1990, as part of a sequence called the Family Portrait of the Solar System. By then, the spacecraft had completed its primary encounters with Jupiter and Saturn and was moving outward. Sagan encouraged mission controllers to turn Voyager's camera back toward the planets, even though Earth was too distant to reveal surface details.

The distance is often rounded to 6 billion kilometers; more precise descriptions give roughly 6.4 billion kilometers, or about 40 astronomical units. Another common mistake is attributing the image to Voyager 2. Voyager 1 took the iconic portrait, while both probes carried similar cameras and explored the outer Solar System.