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One light-day isn’t a span of time, but the distance it takes for light to travel in 24 hours. Since light travels at around 186,282 miles per second or 300,000 km per second, that’s a distance of about 16 billion miles or 26 billion kilometers. By comparison, the Moon is 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) from Earth, while our planet is 93 million miles (149.6 million kilometers) from the Sun.
Voyager 1’s estimated speed in relation to the Sun is 37,844.49 mph, which makes it pretty fast (but still not the fastest human-made object ever built — the Parker Solar Probe’s holds the record at 394,736 mph). Despite that, it will still take the spacecraft 49 years, 2 months, and 13 days to get to one light-day from Earth.
This is actually one of Voyager 1’s achievements, as NASA scientists have extended its lifespan by nearly ten times the length of its original mission timeline. It also hasn’t been easy for the space probe — in 2024, it suffered from a critical memory error , which engineers were able to fix after weeks of diagnosis . The distance has made repairing the spacecraft quite a challenge, as the latency at that time was already more than 22 hours, with round-trip communications taking at least 45 hours. Earlier this year, NASA had to use an emergency instrument shutdown procedure after an unexpected drop in power levels.
Experts estimate that the three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) that power the spacecraft have enough juice in them to allow Voyager 1 to continue operating until the 2030s. So, unless it encounters a major issue, we can expect it to continue sending data back to Earth as it continues to travel through interstellar space. As the space probe continues its journey, its heading is set towards a star called AC +79 3888 or Gliese 445. This heavenly body is located within the Ursa Minor constellation, with the ship expected to pass within 1.7 light-years of the star in 17 light-years. But given that Voyager 1 only travels at 0.00564325% of the speed of light, we estimate that it will take the ship more than 300,000 years to reach its next destination.
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Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/space/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/space/voyager-1-probe-to-hit-historic-one-light-day-distance-from-earth-in-17-days-49-year-old-spacecraft-travels-16-billion-miles-and-survives-nearly-ten-times-the-length-of-its-original-five-year-mission#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.