4 ms·

I just realized that Voyager 1 took 45 years to get to less than one light-day from Earth. Which is still a huge distance, but it just puts into perspective how

by rob74 4y ago

I just realized that Voyager 1 took 45 years to get to less than one light-day from Earth. Which is still a huge distance, but it just puts into perspective how daunting the task of covering several light-years with a spacecraft really is...

abhishekjha 4y ago
>it just puts into perspective how daunting the task of covering several light-years with a spacecraft really is... And then you have multipliers like million/billion. I kinda just lose perspective over there.
- MauranKilom 4y ago
  "'The light from those millions of stars you see is probably many thousands of years old' is a rare example of laypeople substantially OVERestimating astronomical numbers." https://xkcd.com/1342/ https://xkcd.com/1342/ There is plenty of interesting stuff within ten light years, so don't lose perspective too much ;)
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    Depends how you look at it, I suppose. There are about 5k visible stars, most indeed pretty close... but if you manage to make out Andromeda, I suppose you're technically seeing about a trillion, and they're all pretty far off...
knorker 4y ago
On the flip side of this in "only" something like 20'000 years it'll be a light year away. Yes, that's a really long time, but 20'000 years ago humans already existed. In fact it's "only" 10% back into the history of humans. This gives me hope that actually while yes out of reach of humans, not out of reach of humanity. Even without FTL. Or in other words: There will be humans out there for whom it's normal that we have sent equipment a light year away. (I choose to believe we'll survive that long)
- TheCondor 4y ago
  We don’t have that much actual history from humans >20000 years ago…. We were around though
dTal 4y ago
To be fair, almost the entire trip was a) unpowered, and b) uphill.
- Ruthalas 4y ago
  In this case, is 'uphill' referring to 'away from a gravity well'?
wil421 4y ago
The probe didn’t take a direct path to interstellar space. It did a few flybys IIRC. 45 years with a few pit stops while taking the scenic route to interstellar space. I believe our Pluto probe made the journey to the outer solar system in a much faster time.
- rob74 4y ago
  According to Wikipedia: > New Horizons has been called "the fastest spacecraft ever launched" because it left Earth at 16.26 kilometers per second [...] However, it is not the fastest spacecraft to leave the Solar System. As of January 2018, this record is held by Voyager 1, traveling at 16.985 km/s relative to the Sun. Voyager 1 attained greater hyperbolic excess velocity than New Horizons due to gravity assists by Jupiter and Saturn. When New Horizons reaches the distance of 100 AU, it will be travelling at about 13 km/s, around 4 km/s slower than Voyager 1 at that distance.

by rob74 4y ago

abhishekjha 4y ago

>it just puts into perspective how daunting the task of covering several light-years with a spacecraft really is... And then you have multipliers like million/billion. I kinda just lose perspective over there.

MauranKilom 4y ago
"'The light from those millions of stars you see is probably many thousands of years old' is a rare example of laypeople substantially OVERestimating astronomical numbers." https://xkcd.com/1342/ https://xkcd.com/1342/ There is plenty of interesting stuff within ten light years, so don't lose perspective too much ;)
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  Depends how you look at it, I suppose. There are about 5k visible stars, most indeed pretty close... but if you manage to make out Andromeda, I suppose you're technically seeing about a trillion, and they're all pretty far off...

knorker 4y ago

On the flip side of this in "only" something like 20'000 years it'll be a light year away. Yes, that's a really long time, but 20'000 years ago humans already existed. In fact it's "only" 10% back into the history of humans. This gives me hope that actually while yes out of reach of humans, not out of reach of humanity. Even without FTL. Or in other words: There will be humans out there for whom it's normal that we have sent equipment a light year away. (I choose to believe we'll survive that long)

TheCondor 4y ago
We don’t have that much actual history from humans >20000 years ago…. We were around though

dTal 4y ago

To be fair, almost the entire trip was a) unpowered, and b) uphill.

Ruthalas 4y ago
In this case, is 'uphill' referring to 'away from a gravity well'?

wil421 4y ago

The probe didn’t take a direct path to interstellar space. It did a few flybys IIRC. 45 years with a few pit stops while taking the scenic route to interstellar space. I believe our Pluto probe made the journey to the outer solar system in a much faster time.

rob74 4y ago
According to Wikipedia: > New Horizons has been called "the fastest spacecraft ever launched" because it left Earth at 16.26 kilometers per second [...] However, it is not the fastest spacecraft to leave the Solar System. As of January 2018, this record is held by Voyager 1, traveling at 16.985 km/s relative to the Sun. Voyager 1 attained greater hyperbolic excess velocity than New Horizons due to gravity assists by Jupiter and Saturn. When New Horizons reaches the distance of 100 AU, it will be travelling at about 13 km/s, around 4 km/s slower than Voyager 1 at that distance.