http://blossom.happytavern.co/08fe0d7a6c4c63235cfa7cd4fa3d073e57f5edf19d9b3ef4d28e0e8763cd6dde Voyager 1 is about to cross 1 light-day from home. A light-day is the distance light travels in 24 hours: roughly 16 billion miles (26 billion kilometers). Voyager 1, launched in 1977 and now traveling through interstellar space, is approaching this extraordinary milestone - a distance we once thought impossible for any human-made object to reach. What does 1 light-day mean? Right now, when NASA sends a radio signal to Voyager 1, it takes over 22 hours to arrive. The spacecraft is so far away that even traveling at the speed of light, communication requires nearly a full day each way. Ask Voyager a question, and you'll wait almost two days for an answer. For perspective: - The Moon: 1.3 light-seconds away - Mars (closest): 3 light-minutes away - Pluto: 5.5 light-hours away - Voyager 1: Approaching 1 light-day The journey: Launched September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 was designed to explore Jupiter and Saturn. After completing those flybys, it just kept going. In 2012, it crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space - the first human-made object to leave the solar system's protective bubble. Since then, it's been traveling at about 38,000 mph through the space between stars, powered by a decaying plutonium generator and operating on 1970s computer technology: 69 KB of memory, 8-track tape storage, and code written in Fortran. What's next: Voyager 1 will continue transmitting until roughly 2030, when its power supply finally runs too low to operate instruments. After that, it goes silent - but keeps drifting. In 40,000 years, it will pass within 1.6 light-years of the star AC+79 3888. It will take about 300 million years to complete one orbit around the Milky Way. By then, Earth may be gone, humanity extinct or transformed beyond recognition, but Voyager 1 will still be out there - carrying the Golden Record, our message to the cosmos. 1 light-day. A distance so vast that even light - the fastest thing in the universe - takes 24 hours to cross it. And a spacecraft built by humans in the 1970s is about to reach it. That's what we're capable of when we reach beyond what seems impossible. #Voyager1 #Space #NASA copypasta from fb