'300 or 30,000 years'? How long will Voyager 1 keep traveling through deep space
As we look ahead centuries and even millennia, it becomes clear that Voyager's odyssey is far from over.
Voyager's path goes far beyond the limits of our solar system, aiming for a realm we've never actually seen, and it is still continuing its mission in space even after traveling for decades. It finally crossed into interstellar space in August 2012, becoming the first human-made object to do so as it passed beyond the heliosphere, the bubble of solar wind encasing our solar system, according to NASA.
Voyager still communicates with Earth
Despite its age, Voyager 1 still communicates with Earth, though quite faintly. At its current position, it will soon reach a position where it will take a full 24 hours for signals to make the round trip.
Will the Voyager ever exit the Solar system
Looking far into the future, NASA estimates that Voyager 1 will take about 300 years to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, which is a vast, hypothetical shell of icy debris lying at the edge of the Sun's gravitational influence.
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From there, the spacecraft will spend about another 30,000 years traveling through this distant frontier before emerging on the other side.
What is the Oort cloud
The Oort Cloud itself is a mystery. It's believed to begin roughly 1,000 AU from the Sun (an AU being the distance from Earth to the Sun) and could stretch out to 100,000 AU, although exact boundaries are uncertain.
Even though Voyager 1 is still traveling farther and farther from Earth, it won't be sending signals back forever.
Its power source, a kind of nuclear battery, is expected to run out sometime in the 2020s or early 2030s. After that, it'll go quiet, but it will keep drifting through space for a very, very long time.
What makes Voyager's journey more amazing is that it carries the Golden Record, as Voyager 1 isn't just floating around in space; it's following a planned path into the unknown. It's like a quiet messenger, carrying the curiosity and hopes of all of humanity with it.
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