<P> The pale blue color of the dot is the result of polarization and scattering of the light reflected from Earth . The polarization in turn depends on various factors such as cloud cover, exposed areas of oceans, forests, deserts, snow fields etc . </P> <P> Pale Blue Dot, which was taken with the narrow - angle camera, was also published as part of a composite picture created from a wide - angle camera photograph showing the Sun and the region of space containing the Earth and Venus . The wide - angle image was inset with two narrow - angle pictures: Pale Blue Dot and a similar photograph of Venus . The wide - angle photograph was taken with the darkest filter (a methane absorption band) and the shortest possible exposure (5 milliseconds), to avoid saturating the camera's vidicon tube with scattered sunlight . Even so, the result was a bright burned - out image with multiple reflections from the optics in the camera and the Sun that appears far larger than the actual dimension of the solar disk . The rays around the Sun are a diffraction pattern of the calibration lamp which is mounted in front of the wide - angle lens . </P> <P> According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's HORIZONS tool, the distances between Voyager 1 and the Earth on February 14 and May 15, 1990, were as follows: </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> <Table> Distance of Voyager 1 from Earth <Tr> <Th> Unit of measurement </Th> <Th> February 14, 1990 </Th> <Th> May 15, 1990 </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Astronomical units </Td> <Td> 40.472229 </Td> <Td> 40.417506 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Kilometers </Td> <Td> 6,054,587,000 </Td> <Td> 6,046,400,000 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Miles </Td> <Td> 3,762,146,000 </Td> <Td> 3,757,059,000 </Td> </Tr> </Table> </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Photo of earth from edge of solar system