Nasa’s Voyager 1 probe poised to achieve mega-distance milestone
The probe, now travelling through interstellar space, is close to reaching a distance of one light-day from Earth.
NASA's Voyager 1, launched in 1977, has traveled farther than any other spacecraft from Earth and is nearing a major milestone. The robotic probe, which exited our solar system years ago and is now in interstellar space, will be just a light-day from our planet by Wednesday at 5:16 AM ET (1016 GMT). A light-day represents the distance light travels in 24 hours, approximately 16 billion miles or 26 billion kilometers.
Voyager 1 is hurtling through space at nearly 38,000 miles per hour (61,000 kilometers per hour), allowing it to cover this immense distance in a relatively short time. Astrophysicist Alan Cummings, a long-standing Voyager program scientist, views the achievement as an engineering marvel, highlighting the probe's remarkable longevity and the challenge of maintaining communication with it at such vast distances.
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Also reported by 2 other outlets
- Nasa’s Voyager 1 probe poised to achieve mega-distance milestone freemalaysiatoday.com
- NASA's Voyager 1 probe poised to achieve mega-distance milestone channelnewsasia.com
