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NASA marks Voyager 1 reaching one light-day from Earth on Nov. 18
NASA said Voyager 1 will be more than 16 billion miles from Earth on Nov. 18, a one-light-day distance the agency will mark with a public light campaign and a JPL briefing.
NASA said its Voyager 1 spacecraft will reach one light-day from Earth on Wednesday, Nov. 18, more than 16 billion miles (25.9 billion kilometers), a distance at which light from Earth would take 24 hours to arrive1.
The probe, launched in 1977, remains the most distant human-made object, according to the agency1. NASA said it will mark the milestone with two events, one for the public and one for media and other audiences at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California1.
On Tuesday, Nov. 17, NASA invited people to take part in “Shine Bright for Voyager’s Light-Day,” described as a symbolic wave of golden light after sunset1. The agency said a website lets smartphones and tablets flash “VGR,” Voyager’s call sign, in Morse code, and it encouraged sharing photos or videos tagged @NASA1.
On Thursday, Nov. 19 at 12 p.m. EST, NASA JPL will host a moderated discussion on the status of Voyager 1 and 2, science the twin probes still collect in interstellar space, and the difficulty of operating them over such distances1. A question-and-answer session will follow, and NASA said the program will preview a NASA+ Voyager documentary planned for 2027, the mission’s 50th anniversary1.
Listed speakers include Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate; Jonathan Lunine, JPL chief scientist; Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at JPL; Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at JPL; and Jamie Rankin, Voyager deputy project scientist at Princeton University1. The briefing is set for JPL’s von Kármán Auditorium, with a livestream at nasa.gov/live1.
NASA said U.S. media seeking to attend in person must RSVP by Monday, Nov. 16, and foreign national media by Thursday, Nov. 12, to be considered for onsite credentials1. Virtual media RSVPs are due no later than two hours before the event1.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were built to fly by the outer planets during a rare alignment, NASA said1. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012 and Voyager 2 in 20181. NASA JPL, managed by Caltech, built and operates the spacecraft, with communications through the Deep Space Network; funding comes from NASA’s Heliophysics Division1.
Sources
NASAOfficial source