Voyager 1 Hits One Light-Day From Earth, and NASA Wants Your Phone Lit Up
USD 21,70
Popular
Voyager 1, the most distant human-made object, will have traveled one light-day from Earth on Wednesday, Nov. 18, NASA said. That is more than 16 billion miles (25.9 billion kilometers), and it means any light sent from Earth would need 24 hours to reach the spacecraft. The agency is marking the moment with a worldwide light display that anyone with a phone can join and a live discussion with mission leaders.
The probe launched nearly 50 years ago, in 1977. NASA says it has set up a website that makes smartphones and tablets blink “VGR,” Voyager's call sign, in Morse code.
The week of the milestone, step by step
- Thursday, Nov. 12: Deadline for foreign national journalists to RSVP if they want to be considered for onsite credentials at the NASA event.
- Monday, Nov. 16: Deadline for U.S. journalists to RSVP to attend in person. Reporters joining virtually must sign up no later than two hours before the event.
- Tuesday, Nov. 17: “Shine Bright for Voyager's Light-Day.” NASA invites people around the world to create a symbolic wave of golden light circling the planet after sunset.
- Wednesday, Nov. 18: Voyager 1 passes the one-light-day mark.
- Thursday, Nov. 19, at 12 p.m. EST (9 a.m. PST): NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California hosts a moderated discussion about the Voyager mission.
What the Nov. 19 discussion will cover
Mission members and NASA leadership will talk about the status of Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2. They will also discuss the science the probes continue to collect in interstellar space and the difficulty of keeping the craft running for so long across such huge distances. Questions from reporters and other audience members will follow.
The session will also include a preview of an upcoming NASA+ documentary about Voyager. NASA plans to release it in 2027, for the mission's 50th anniversary.
The panel is set to include Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate; Jonathan Lunine, JPL's chief scientist and a Caltech professor of planetary science; Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager project manager; Kareem Badaruddin, the Voyager mission manager; and Jamie Rankin, the deputy project scientist, from Princeton University. The event takes place in JPL's von Kármán Auditorium, where the laboratory held Voyager briefings during the spacecraft's grand tour of the outer planets.
Why it matters: a chance to take part
For most people, the milestone is something to join rather than just read about. Anyone can use a phone or tablet to send the Voyager signal after sunset on Nov. 17, and NASA encourages participants to share photos or videos of their light-day signal on social platforms, tagging @NASA. The agency says it will also provide ways to watch the Nov. 19 discussion online.
The anniversary also shows how long a single mission can last. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were designed to explore the outer planets, using a planetary alignment that occurs once every 176 years. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012. Voyager 2 followed a different trajectory and entered in 2018. Both spacecraft still provide unique observations of the environment beyond the heliosphere, the protective bubble created by the Sun.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and operates the spacecraft. NASA's Deep Space Network, also managed by JPL, keeps communication open with the distant probes, and the mission is funded by the agency's Heliophysics Division.
Read next
Voyager 1 Is About to Be a Full Light-Day From the Sun, on Nov. 18
Carl Sagan Would Turn 92 as Voyager 1 Nears One Light-Day From Earth
NASA's Swift Space Telescope Could Fall to Earth Within Hours
Around Prague, based on reporting by NASA
