Voyager 1 Nears Historic Distance of One Light-Day From Earth
After nearly 50 years in space,NASA‘s Voyager 1 spacecraft is on the verge of becoming the first human-made object to reach a distance of one light-day from Earth. Currently approximately 15.7 billion miles (25.3 billion kilometers) from our planet, Voyager 1 is projected to reach 16.1 billion miles (25.9 billion kilometers) in 2026. At that point, it will take a full 24 hours for signals to travel one way between Earth and the probe.
Launched in 1977 alongside its twin, Voyager 2, Voyager 1 achieved the milestone of entering interstellar space in 2012 and remains the farthest spacecraft from Earth. Once Voyager 1 reaches one light-day distance, a round-trip communication will require two days - one day for a signal to reach the spacecraft and another for confirmation to return to earth.
The Voyager mission has delivered groundbreaking discoveries,including detailed observations of Jupiter and Saturn,and the iconic “pale blue dot” image of Earth,as envisioned by astrophysicist Carl Sagan.voyager 2, the second most distant human-made object, crossed the outer edge of the solar system in 2018.
Despite possessing roughly 3 million times less memory than a modern smartphone, both voyagers continue to operate, making it NASA’s longest-running mission.Voyager 1’s nuclear power source is anticipated to remain functional for at least another year.
