Voyager 1 Will Cross The 1 Light-Day Threshold On November 18, 2026
An Anonymous Coward writes:
Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object we have ever sent into space, and in just a few months, it will cross a pretty incredible threshold: it will be 1 light-day away from Earth, the first human-made spacecraft to reach this distance. Now, the Voyager mission team has just confirmed to IFLScience the exact date it will meet this milestone. Voyager 1 will be a record-breaking 1 light-day away on November 18, 2026.
Voyager 1 and 2 are the only human-made spacecraft that have reached interstellar space, which means beyond the heliosphere at the edge of the Solar System. One light-day away means it will take the spacecraft 24 hours or more to send a signal to Earth.
NASA did note that due to the motions of both the spacecraft and our planet, the exact moment when the signals between us and Voyager 1 will take 24 hours might be slightly different, but currently, it looks like the precise time will be 2:16:07 am PST (10:16:07 am UTC) on Wednesday, November 18, 2026.
I won't pretend that the Voyagers are not among our favorite missions. They have been in space for all my life. It is simply extraordinary that we got to see a human-made object cross the threshold of 1 light-day, an incredibly cosmic record.
The Voyager probes were launched in 1977, and after just shy of 50 years in space, they continue to give us a glimpse into the cosmos. On their way to the outer Solar System, Voyager 1 visited Jupiter and Saturn, while its twin took a deviation and got the only close-up look we have ever had of Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 was also the first human-made object to enter interstellar space in 2012, followed by Voyager 2 in December 2018.
Everything about these two spacecraft is truly unbelievable, particularly that they continue to send data back to Earth, providing insights into an unexplored region of space. However, most of their instruments had to be turned off to save battery, cameras included. The last-ever image taken by Voyager 1 was the Pale Blue Dot, snapped 36 years ago on Valentine's Day, 1990.
Soon, Voyager 1 will be more than 1 light-day away. This enormous distance makes it challenging to communicate with the spacecraft. There have been several problems with the Voyager probes, and yet, the mission team has been nothing short of incredible, troubleshooting and fixing a half-century-old machine in interstellar space.
On November 15, Voyager 1 will reach 25.9 billion kilometers (15 billion miles) away from Earth, a distance that takes light more than 24 hours to cover. The spacecraft has been beyond the influence of the Sun for a while, but it will take a very long time for it to be close to a star other than our own.
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