The place is Voyager 2 going?
1/ In reply to ‘the place are you going?’: ?The journey will successfully finish (for you) when my energy provide is so low that I can not function any of my devices. The EOM command will shut down communication with Earth. When? Inside the subsequent few years.
— NSFVoyager2 (@NSFVoyager2) November 28, 2023
3/ The ultimate purpose was 2 ship radio indicators again 2 Earth by means of Triton’s ambiance, yielding information on its composition & density. 2 get that alignment proper, I used to be despatched skimming over Neptune’s main facet & looping under the ecliptic airplane to go by means of Triton’s radio shadow!
— NSFVoyager2 (@NSFVoyager2) November 28, 2023
5/ …however the actuality is that 1.65 light-years remains to be an insurmountable distance. Each different star I’ll go throughout the subsequent _million_ years might be greater than 2 mild years from me. It is extremely possible that I can’t _ever_ encounter something.
— NSFVoyager2 (@NSFVoyager2) November 28, 2023
7/ I’ll see the final of the celebs extinguish,& the flashes of evaporating black holes. The matter that I used to be manufactured from will attain a time the place it’ll merely fade away,together with the final of the longest wavelengths of sunshine,stretched out by the enlargement & chilly dying of the universe.
— NSFVoyager2 (@NSFVoyager2) November 28, 2023
Voyager 1 and a couple of
Launched in 1977, Voyagers 1 and a couple of are essentially the most distant human-made objects from Earth. And so they’re prone to stay, for now. The New Horizons spacecraft – launched in 2006 – left Earth far quicker than any outbound probe earlier than it. Nevertheless it received’t overtake the Voyagers as essentially the most distant human-made object from Earth, as a result of the 2 Voyagers obtained gravity assists from mighty Jupiter and Saturn.
Voyager 1 is barely more distant than Voyager 2. Astronomers and space followers generally measure distances throughout our solar system in Earth-sun items, known as astronomical units, or AU. A single AU is about 93 million miles (150 million km). Voyager 1 is 162 AU from Earth. And Voyager 2 is 135 AU from Earth.
You’ll be able to hold monitor of their progress here.
For a number of months annually, the gap between every Voyager spacecraft and Earth shrinks. That’s as a result of – because the Voyagers streak away from our sun at greater than 30,000 miles per hour (48,000 kph) – Earth can also be transferring, pursuing our yearly orbit round the sun. As we loop across the sun, generally we’re moving into a path reverse that of 1 or one other Voyager. And generally once we’re hurtling by means of space – touring at our personal velocity of 67,000 mph (107,000 km/h) – we’re sizzling on the heels of 1 or one other Voyager. And so the gap between it and us decreases … till we head again the opposite manner once more, pulled inexorably by our sun’s gravity.
In 2012, Voyager 1 grew to become the primary spacecraft to depart the solar system. Then, in 2018, Voyager 2 crossed the heliopause, the boundary of our sun’s affect, heading towards deep space. In 2021, Voyager 1 despatched again a message that it’s listening to a faint, monotone hum of interstellar space.
Earlier this yr, NASA said that it will be extending the science mission of Voyager 2 for one more three years. It discovered a technique to preserve energy on the spacecraft and hold it speaking with us a bit longer.
And so Voyager 1 ought to hold speaking till 2025. Wonderful work, for a spacecraft scheduled to final solely 4 years.
Backside line: The place is Voyager 2 going? It’s not aimed for any explicit star, however in 40,000 years it’s going to go inside 1.65 light-years of the star Ross 248.
