Semper peregrinus inter astra — a well-informed unofficial account full of unauthorized jargon. Questions welcome, but answers will take 2x light-travel time...
Far below the scattered disc
Joined October 2008
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1/ On this last day of 2024, I thought this might interest those of you following our progress in detail. Here is a summary of all the One-Way Light Travel Times of the Voyager spacecraft over 2024.
The first thing to note is that the plot lines have different vertical axes! ...
So you’ve probably seen a lot of posts and articles about Voyager 1 reaching the one light-day milestone on November 18, 2026. What are the _next_ milestones for the Voyager probes?
While Earth and even Jupiter fade into the background and become less relevant for the Voyagers, the Sun is still the dominant gravitational force, and will remain so for hundreds of years. On February 4 next year, Voyager 1 will reach the one light-day distance _from the Sun._ Why is this date different? Because of the position of Earth in its orbit around the Sun. Earth was a little farther away (orbiting around the ‘backside’ as seen from Voyager 1) and so the distance to Earth was a little greater in November.
For this next milestone, you will notice that the order is reversed (Sun first, Earth second), and now you can figure out why that is! On August 11, 2028 Voyager 2 will be 150 times as far from the Sun as the Earth, or 150 Astronomical Units (AU). It will be 150 AU from the Earth five weeks later on September 18, 2028.
The milestone after that? On January 6 2029, the two Voyagers will be 20 BILLION miles apart. I have milestones tagged out to 2100 (the current limit to the HORIZONS system for the Voyagers), but that’s for another post…
#Voyager1 #OneLightDay
Sister ship Voyager 1 is currently ~23h 59m 06s of light travel time from Earth (2026:315:120000:1L)
Sister ship Voyager 1 is currently ~23h 58m 58s of light travel time from Earth (2026:314:120000:1L)
Sister ship Voyager 1 is currently ~23h 58m 50s of light travel time from Earth (2026:313:120000:1L)
Sister ship Voyager 1 is currently ~23h 58m 41s of light travel time from Earth (2026:312:120000:1L)
Sister ship Voyager 1 is currently ~23h 58m 33s of light travel time from Earth (2026:311:120000:1L)
Sister ship Voyager 1 is currently ~23h 58m 24s of light travel time from Earth, or 25,873,000,000 km / 16,077,000,000 mi / 172.952 AU (2026:310:120000:1L)
I am currently ~20h 03m 25s of light travel time from Earth, or 21,647,000,000 km / 13,451,000,000 mi / 144.698 AU (2026:310:000000:2L)
Sister ship Voyager 1 is currently ~23h 58m 16s of light travel time from Earth (2026:309:120000:1L)
OTD in 2018, Voyager 2 entered interstellar space, as defined by the Sun's heliosphere, or the 'bubble' the Solar Wind blows around it. A steep increase in Galactic Cosmic Rays and a steep decrease in particles from our Sun marked this boundary. More: nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-…
Sister ship Voyager 1 is currently ~23h 58m 07s of light travel time from Earth (2026:308:120000:1L)
NSFVoyager2 retweeted
Thanks to an amazing calibration with Charles, we have developed an absolutely AMAZING tool honoring the upcoming milestone of Voyager 1 crossing the 1 Light Day mark.
Check it out at maxq.app/voyager
In roughly twelve days, spaceflight will reach a milestone like no other: humanity's reach will pass 1 Light Day from Earth.
We've built a 3-D interactive map for you to view Voyager's location in space, with the planets in their right places...
maxq.app/voyager
