Both spacecraft have been traveling along different trajectories and at different speeds.
Voyager 1 is traveling faster, at a speed of about 17 kilometers per second (38,000 mph), compared to Voyager 2’s velocity of 15 kilometers per second (35,000 mph)
.
Which is faster Voyager 1 or 2?
Voyager 1
is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.6 AU per year. Voyager 2 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year.
How fast is Voyager 2 traveling now?
Today, Voyager 2 is traveling at about
15.4 km/s
and Voyager 1 is traveling at about 17 km/s. Here’s a diagram showing the velocity change of Voyager 2, since launch.
How far does Voyager 1 travel in a second?
Travelling at about
17 km/s
(11 mi/s), it has the fastest heliocentric recession speed of any spacecraft. As Voyager 1 headed for interstellar space, its instruments continued to study the Solar System.
How is Voyager 1 moving so fast?
That
outward speed comes from the combination of a high speed launch away from Earth, followed by a big gravitational slingshot past Jupiter
. The thrusters which are on board are mostly for controlling the direction the spacecraft are pointing – they’d be very slow to increase the speed of the craft.
Will Voyager 1 ever stop?
How long can Voyager 1 and 2 continue to function?
Voyager 1 is expected to keep its current suite of science instruments on through 2021
. Voyager 2 is expected to keep its current suite of science instruments on through 2020. The radioisotope thermoelectric generator on each spacecraft puts out 4 watts less each year.
How long did it take Voyager 1 to leave the solar system?
Voyager 1 Spacecraft Has Left Solar System. A spacecraft from Earth has left its cosmic backyard and taken its first steps in interstellar space. After streaking through space for nearly 35 years, NASA’s robotic Voyager 1 probe finally left the solar system in
August 2012
, a study published today (Sept.
How many miles does Voyager travel in a day?
Traveling at speeds of more than 35,000 mph, the Voyagers travel about
900,000 miles
farther from Earth each day, a distance equal to roughly 36 times Earth’s circumference.
Is Voyager 1 coming back to Earth?
The probe is well into the fourth decade of its mission, and it hasn’t come near a planet since it flew past Saturn in 1980. But even as it drifts farther and farther from a dimming sun,
it’s still sending information back to Earth
, as scientists recently reported in The Astrophysical Journal.
Will Voyager 1 ever leave the Milky Way?
By 500 million years from now, the solar system and the Voyagers alike will complete a full orbit through the Milky Way.
Will Voyager 1 leave the Milky Way?
How fast is Voyager 1 traveling right now?
Voyager 1 is traveling faster, at a speed of about
17 kilometers per second (38,000 mph)
, compared to Voyager 2’s velocity of 15 kilometers per second (35,000 mph).
How fast is a Parker Solar Probe?
430,000 mph
How long does it take Voyager 1 to reach Earth?
The Voyagers transmit data to Earth every day. The spacecraft collect information about their surrounding environment in real time and then send it back through radio signals. Voyager 1 data takes about
19 hours
to reach Earth, and signals from Voyager 2 about 16 hours.
How long would it take Voyager to reach Alpha Centauri?
It will take
20,000 years
for our earliest probes to reach Alpha Centauri. Some of the earliest explorations of the universe beyond our solar system were made by four probes launched by NASA in the 1970s — Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2.
How much power does Voyager 1 have left?
NASA estimates that the Voyagers’ fuel efficiency is
upwards of 30,000 miles per gallon of hydrazine
. Voyager 1 has enough hydrazine to keep going until 2040, while Voyager 2’s juice can keep it hurtling along until 2034.
What will happen when Voyager 1 runs out of power?
If Voyager 1 does manage to leave the heliosphere before it runs out of power around 2025,
the spacecraft will probe the Local Cloud
, a wisp of interstellar flotsam absorbing traces of light from nearby stars.
Will the Voyager hit anything?
The probability of Voyager colliding with any matter any time soon is unknown, but likely small
. We have no way of detecting small outer solar system objects, because they are small and far away.
How far will Voyager 1 be in a billion years?
The Voyagers have enough electrical power and thruster fuel to keep its current suite of science instruments on until at least 2025. By that time, Voyager 1 will be about
13.8 billion miles
(22.1 billion kilometers) from the Sun and Voyager 2 will be 11.4 billion miles (18.4 billion kilometers) away.
Where is the Voyager 1 now 2021?
As of November 4, 2021, Voyager 1 is believed to be
more than 14.4 billion miles from Earth
, NASA reports.
Can Voyager 1 take pictures?
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, having completed its mission along with Voyager 2 to explore the outer planets,
will use its cameras February 13-14 to take an unprecedented family portrait of most of the planets in our solar system
.
What happens every 176 years?
The Voyager missions took advantage of
a special alignment of the outer planets
that happens just once every 176 years. This alignment allows spacecraft to gravitationally “slingshot” from one planet to the next, making the most efficient use of their limited fuel.
How long did it take for Voyager to get to Pluto?
The $720 million New Horizons mission launched in January 2006, speeding away from Earth at a record-breaking 36,400 mph (58,580 km/h). Even at that blistering pace, it still took the probe
9.5 years
to reach Pluto, which was about 3 billion miles (5 billion km) from Earth on the day of the flyby.
Can telescopes see Voyager?
These radio telescopes
cannot see Voyager 1 in visible light
, but rather “see” the spacecraft signal in radio light. Antennas make up a radio telescope like mirrors and pixels make up an optical one. The telescopes made a special attempt to look for Voyager 1’s signal to test their sensitivity.
How long will Voyager 1 battery last?
Voyager 1 is expected to keep working
until 2025
when it will finally run out of power. None of this would be possible without the spacecraft’s three batteries filled with plutonium-238. In fact, Most of what humanity knows about the outer planets came back to Earth on plutonium power.
Has Voyager 1 left the solar system?
It’s official:
Voyager 1 has slipped from the solar system
. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 traveled past Jupiter and Saturn and is now more than 11.66 billion miles (18.67 billion kilometers) from the sun, becoming the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space.
