NASA's Voyager 1 hits one light-day distance from Earth
NASA's Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth on Wednesday, when radio signals take 24 hours to arrive.
Why it matters
Voyager 1 shows the furthest reach of human exploration. This milestone demonstrates how far humanity has already travelled into space.
In Australia. Australians can join the global celebration at sunset on Tuesday, and this spacecraft was built with tech from the 1970s, showcasing human ingenuity that still works today.
Key facts
- 26 billion kilometres
- Distance reached
- 49
- Years in space
- 24 hours
- Signal travel time
- 18,000
- Years to full light-year
- After 49 years in space, Voyager 1 is about to become the first human-made object to reach one light-day away from Earth.
- One light-day is just over 26 billion kilometres.
- On Wednesday, when Voyager 1 crosses this point, its radio signals will take 24 hours to reach us.
- NASA says it will take another 18,000 years for the spacecraft to travel one full light-year, and more than double that before it comes near another star.
- To mark the moment, NASA is asking people worldwide to shine phones or torches at sunset on Tuesday.
- Together they will create waves of golden light.
- They will spell Voyager's call sign V-G-R in Morse code.
- Both Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 keep sending back science and engineering data.
- They zoom deeper into interstellar space, even at their age.
