What’s the most distant spacecraft from Earth?

Voyager 1 is the most distant spacecraft from Earth. On February 14, 1990, Voyager 1’s cameras pointed back toward the sun and took a series of pictures of the sun and the planets, making the first ever “portrait” of our solar system as seen from the outside. At that time, Voyager 1 was approximately 4 billion miles (6 billion km) away. Read more about this image.

What’s the most distant spacecraft from Earth?

The most distant artificial object is the spacecraft Voyager 1, which – in November 2021 – is nearly 14 1/2 billion miles (23 billion km) from Earth. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune. Now both Voyagers are journeying into the space between the stars. Voyager 1 officially became the first earthly craft to leave the solar system, crossing the heliopause in 2012. Earlier this year it sent back a message that it’s hearing a faint, monotone hum of interstellar space.

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Voyagers’ beginnings

Both Voyager spacecraft were designed back in the early 1970s. They were built to take advantage of a rare grouping of planets on a single side of the sun in our solar system. This grouping, which happens only every 176 years, let the Voyagers slingshot from one planet to the next, via gravitational assists.

Graphic with information about the journeys of the Voyagers, via Space.com.

The Voyagers began acquiring images of Jupiter in January 1979. Voyager 1 completed its Jupiter encounter in early April of that year. Voyager 2 picked up the baton in late April and its encounter continued into August. The two spacecraft took more than 33,000 pictures of Jupiter and its five major satellites.

And then the Voyagers went further. When they were launched, no spacecraft had gone as far as Saturn, which is 10 times as far as Earth’s distance from the sun. The four-year journey to Saturn was thus a major leap, with the Voyagers arriving at Saturn nine months apart, in November 1980 and August 1981. Voyager 1 then began leaving the solar system, and Voyager 2 went on to an encounter with Uranus in January 1986 and with Neptune in August 1989.

The most distant spacecraft keeps on going

Ed Stone – who was Project Scientist for the Voyager mission – told EarthSky some years ago:

We built the spacecraft with enough redundancy – that is, backup systems – so that they could keep going.

And keep going they did! The Voyagers have now been traveling for 44 years.

View larger. | Voyager 1’s trajectory in Earth’s sky from 1977-2030. Image via Tomruen/ Wikimedia Commons.

In 2017, astronomers described using the Hubble Space Telescope to look along the Voyagers’ paths. In about 40,000 years, long after both spacecraft are no longer operational, Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6 light-years of the star Gliese 445, in the constellation Camelopardalis. Meanwhile, Voyager 2 is nearly 12 billion miles (19 billion km) from Earth. Voyager 2 will pass 1.7 light-years from the star Ross 248 in the constellation Andromeda in about 40,000 years.

Read more: Hubble peers along Voyagers’ future paths

View larger. | Artist’s concept of the paths of the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft on their journey through our solar system and out into interstellar space. Image via NASA/ ESA/ and Z. Levay (STScI). Read more about this image.

Bottom line: Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, launched 16 days apart in 1977. Voyager 1 is now the most distant spacecraft from Earth.

Mission status: Where are the Voyagers?

Read more: New Horizons spacecraft takes image looking toward Voyager 1

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