Its official, the Voyager 1 launched on September 5,1977 is the most distant man made object in space...its travelling away from the solar system at a speed of 17.2 km/s relative to the sun ie. 38,400 miles per hour!! It is more than 9 billion miles away from the sun as of January 2006. It was swing upward from the plain in which the planets revolve around the sun(except pluto) when it passed by Titan.
The probe has reached the edge of the solar system from where on the interstellar space begins..Voyager 1 has entered the heliosheath, a region beyond termination shock – the heliosheath is the shocked region between the solar system and interstellar space. If Voyager 1 is still functioning when it finally passes the heliopause, scientists will get their first direct measurements of the conditions in the interstellar medium. At this distance, signals from Voyager 1 take more than thirteen hours to reach its control center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Voyager 1 is on a hyperbolic trajectory and has achieved escape velocity, meaning that its orbit will not return to the inner solar system. Along with Pioneer 10, the now deactivated Pioneer 11, and its sister ship Voyager 2, Voyager 1 is becoming an interstellar probe.
The voyager 1 carries a Golden record with voices of the then US president Jimmy Carter and details about the earth and its life forms should it be ever recieved by an alien life form in future.
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 was actually launched before the voyager 1 on Aug,20 1977.
It is also not far behind..it is escaping the solar system at a little slower speed of 35000 miles per hour away from the sun.
The Voyagers have enough electrical power and thruster fuel to operate at least until 2020.They will be able to communicate with earth till 2030. By that time, Voyager 1 will be 12.4 billion miles from the Sun and Voyager 2 will be 10.5 billion miles from the Sun.
Where the Voyager 1 and 2 are headed?
Eventually, the Voyagers will pass other stars:
* Voyager 1, in 40,000 years, will float by within 1.6 light years (9.3 trillion miles) of a star known as AC+79 3888 in the constellation Camelopardalis.
* Voyager 2, in 296,000 years, will sail within 4.3 light years (25 trillion miles) of Sirius, which today is the brightest star in Earth's sky.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are destined to wander through our Milky Way galaxy eternally  unless they crash into something we can't yet calculate.
The Pioneers 10 & 11 :
The Pioneer 10 launched in March 2,1972 is a little slower in escaping the solar system but not far behind nevertheless.It is approximately 8 billion miles from the sun but travelling at a slower speed of 27,380 mph.
Unfortunately it has stopped communicating with earth since 1997.
Where the pioneer 10 is headed?
Pioneer 10 is heading away from our Sun generally in the direction of the red star Aldeberan. That's the main star seen as the eye of The Bull in the constellation Taurus in Earth's night sky. Aldebaran is about 68 light years away. Pioneer 10 should arrive at Aldeberan in 2 million years.
What if some one found the pioneer 10?
What if some living thing out there finds it along the way or at Aldeberan? Pioneer 10 has that gold plaque telling those creatures out there about the creatures back home that built it back home on Earth.
Where is Pioneer 11 headed?
The other outward bound Pioneer is headed into the constellation Aquila  The Eagle  seen in Earth's night sky northwest of the constellation Sagittarius. In four million years, Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars in that constellation.
There have been no communications with Pioneer 11 since November 1995.
If some one recieved Pioneer 11..
Gold plaques. Like Pioneer 10, the Pioneer 11 spacecraft carried a gold plaque with messages designed to make contact with possible alien civilizations. The late Dr. Carl Sagan helped devise the plaques that bear the illustration of a man and a woman as well as a diagram identifying Earth's location in the galaxy. Like a message in a bottle, these plaques will journey out into interstellar space possibly to be found one day by an extraterrestrial civilization.
Where the Four probes are headed to:
Courtesy : Nasa.gov, spacetoday.com, space.com
The probe has reached the edge of the solar system from where on the interstellar space begins..Voyager 1 has entered the heliosheath, a region beyond termination shock – the heliosheath is the shocked region between the solar system and interstellar space. If Voyager 1 is still functioning when it finally passes the heliopause, scientists will get their first direct measurements of the conditions in the interstellar medium. At this distance, signals from Voyager 1 take more than thirteen hours to reach its control center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Voyager 1 is on a hyperbolic trajectory and has achieved escape velocity, meaning that its orbit will not return to the inner solar system. Along with Pioneer 10, the now deactivated Pioneer 11, and its sister ship Voyager 2, Voyager 1 is becoming an interstellar probe.
The voyager 1 carries a Golden record with voices of the then US president Jimmy Carter and details about the earth and its life forms should it be ever recieved by an alien life form in future.
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 was actually launched before the voyager 1 on Aug,20 1977.
It is also not far behind..it is escaping the solar system at a little slower speed of 35000 miles per hour away from the sun.
The Voyagers have enough electrical power and thruster fuel to operate at least until 2020.They will be able to communicate with earth till 2030. By that time, Voyager 1 will be 12.4 billion miles from the Sun and Voyager 2 will be 10.5 billion miles from the Sun.
Where the Voyager 1 and 2 are headed?
Eventually, the Voyagers will pass other stars:
* Voyager 1, in 40,000 years, will float by within 1.6 light years (9.3 trillion miles) of a star known as AC+79 3888 in the constellation Camelopardalis.
* Voyager 2, in 296,000 years, will sail within 4.3 light years (25 trillion miles) of Sirius, which today is the brightest star in Earth's sky.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are destined to wander through our Milky Way galaxy eternally  unless they crash into something we can't yet calculate.
The Pioneers 10 & 11 :
The Pioneer 10 launched in March 2,1972 is a little slower in escaping the solar system but not far behind nevertheless.It is approximately 8 billion miles from the sun but travelling at a slower speed of 27,380 mph.
Unfortunately it has stopped communicating with earth since 1997.
Where the pioneer 10 is headed?
Pioneer 10 is heading away from our Sun generally in the direction of the red star Aldeberan. That's the main star seen as the eye of The Bull in the constellation Taurus in Earth's night sky. Aldebaran is about 68 light years away. Pioneer 10 should arrive at Aldeberan in 2 million years.
What if some one found the pioneer 10?
What if some living thing out there finds it along the way or at Aldeberan? Pioneer 10 has that gold plaque telling those creatures out there about the creatures back home that built it back home on Earth.
Where is Pioneer 11 headed?
The other outward bound Pioneer is headed into the constellation Aquila  The Eagle  seen in Earth's night sky northwest of the constellation Sagittarius. In four million years, Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars in that constellation.
There have been no communications with Pioneer 11 since November 1995.
If some one recieved Pioneer 11..
Gold plaques. Like Pioneer 10, the Pioneer 11 spacecraft carried a gold plaque with messages designed to make contact with possible alien civilizations. The late Dr. Carl Sagan helped devise the plaques that bear the illustration of a man and a woman as well as a diagram identifying Earth's location in the galaxy. Like a message in a bottle, these plaques will journey out into interstellar space possibly to be found one day by an extraterrestrial civilization.
Where the Four probes are headed to:
Courtesy : Nasa.gov, spacetoday.com, space.com
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