Voyager 1 spacecraft has been breaking distance records for decades. Launched almost 50 years ago, it became the farthest human-built object from Earth when it overtook the pathfinding Pioneer 10 probe in 1998. It was the first spacecraft to leave the solar system’s protective bubble, and it will be humankind’s first emissary to the stars.
The cameras on Voyager 1, along with those on its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, captured powerful megastorms in the outer solar system, the first images of dozens of moons and never-before-seen details of the gossamer rings around Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. The images and data sent home have shaped theories of how the solar system formed and evolved, inspired subsequent missions and posed enough new questions to keep space scientists busy for decades.
And this month, Voyager 1 will set another big record. On November 18 at 5:16:07 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, it will become the first spacecraft to reach one light-day from Earth: the distance light travels in 24 hours. That’s a journey of 25.9 billion kilometers, or more than four times the distance from the sun to Pluto. At that point, signals from Earth will take a full day to reach Voyager 1; it will take another day to hear back.
In 1990, with Voyager 1 about 6 billion kilometers from the sun, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced mission leaders to turn the spacecraft backward for one last look at the planets. Voyager 1 took a family portrait in which Earth appeared faintly as a “pale blue dot,” Sagan said. “Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives … on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,” he wrote in the 1994 book Pale Blue Dot.
To save power, Voyager 2’s cameras were shut off in 1989. After the family portrait, Voyager 1’s cameras were also turned off. Where the spacecraft were headed, there wouldn’t be much to see.
At the time of his post the positions are....
The cameras on Voyager 1, along with those on its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, captured powerful megastorms in the outer solar system, the first images of dozens of moons and never-before-seen details of the gossamer rings around Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. The images and data sent home have shaped theories of how the solar system formed and evolved, inspired subsequent missions and posed enough new questions to keep space scientists busy for decades.
And this month, Voyager 1 will set another big record. On November 18 at 5:16:07 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, it will become the first spacecraft to reach one light-day from Earth: the distance light travels in 24 hours. That’s a journey of 25.9 billion kilometers, or more than four times the distance from the sun to Pluto. At that point, signals from Earth will take a full day to reach Voyager 1; it will take another day to hear back.
In 1990, with Voyager 1 about 6 billion kilometers from the sun, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced mission leaders to turn the spacecraft backward for one last look at the planets. Voyager 1 took a family portrait in which Earth appeared faintly as a “pale blue dot,” Sagan said. “Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives … on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,” he wrote in the 1994 book Pale Blue Dot.
To save power, Voyager 2’s cameras were shut off in 1989. After the family portrait, Voyager 1’s cameras were also turned off. Where the spacecraft were headed, there wouldn’t be much to see.
At the time of his post the positions are....
