In August 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to cross into interstellar space. However, if we define our solar system as the Sun and everything that primarily orbits the Sun, Voyager 1 will remain within the confines of the solar system until it emerges from the Oort cloud in another 14,000 to 28,000 years.
Travel Time
At 17.3 km/s, it would take Voyager over1,700,000,000 years to traverse the entire length of the Milky Way. Even traveling at the speed of light, it would take nearly a hundred thousand years!
Now humanity's first ambassador to the Milky Way, Voyager 1 is over 19 light-hours away, beyond the heliosphere in interstellar space.
They are both headed outward, never to return to Earth. So, can they get closer? The answer is that for a few months each year, Earth in its orbit moves toward the spacecraft faster than they're moving away. Earth's motion around the sun is faster than the motion of the Voyager spacecraft.
While Voyager 1 lacks the velocity necessary to escape the Milky Way galaxy, it doesn't actually need to. Because the Milky Way galaxy itself will collide and begin to merge with the Andromeda galaxy within about 4.5 billion years. It's unlikely any objects within either galaxy will collide with something in the other.
Both Voyagers are expected to last another five years or so until their batteries die out. Both are powered by electricity generated by the heat of radioactive plutonium.
The two Voyager spacecraft could remain in the range of the Deep Space Network through about 2036, depending on how much power the spacecraft still have to transmit a signal back to Earth.
Parting Shot. After taking the images for “The Family Portrait” at 05:22 GMT on Feb. 14, 1990, Voyager 1 powered down its cameras forever.
No spacecraft has gone farther than NASA's Voyager 1. Launched in 1977 to fly by Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in August 2012 and continues to collect data.
so the sun is only 1/122 of the diameter in Voyagers sky. That means it would appear as large as stars appear to us on Earth by eye. The light from the sun though spreads out with the area of the sphere, so the square of the distance. This means that at voyager it is only 1/(122*122) = 0.007% as bright.
These radio telescopes cannot see Voyager 1 in visible light, but rather "see" the spacecraft signal in radio light. Antennas make up a radio telescope like mirrors and pixels make up an optical one.
Scientists expect the Voyager spacecraft to outlive Earth by at least a trillion years. Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth. After sweeping by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, it is now almost 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth in interstellar space.
Eventually, the Voyagers will pass other stars. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will drift within 1.6 light-years (9.3 trillion miles) of AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis which is heading toward the constellation Ophiuchus.
Voyager 1 has reached a distance of 23.381 billion km (14.528 billion mi; 156.29 AU) from Earth and 23.483 billion km (14.592 billion mi; 156.97 AU) from the Sun.
Voyager 2 remains in contact with Earth through the NASA Deep Space Network.
Voyager 1 has avoided significant damage by space debris because space is very empty and space is very, very big, so there's generally nothing in its path to hit except for a few stray solar wind ions.
The golden records are designed to keep their data intact for a billion years — longer than humanity will likely exist.
Even after the Voyagers are completely muted, their journeys will continue. In another 16,700 years, Voyager 1 will pass our nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, followed 3,600 years later by Voyager 2. Then they will continue to circle the galaxy for millions of years.
NASA is keeping Voyager 2 going until at least 2026 by tapping into backup power Engineers have bought the spacecraft's interstellar mission more time by using backup power from a safety mechanism. It means NASA no longer has to shut down one of its five scientific instruments.
Because Voyager 2 is considered a “geriatric” spacecraft, losing contact with it for any length of time is risky. And for the next 11 months, Earth's ability to communicate with the probe, now in what's considered interstellar space, will be limited.
Interestingly, although New Horizons was launched far faster than any outbound probe before it, it will never overtake either Voyager 1 or Voyager 2 as the most distant human-made object from Earth, thanks to gravity assists they received from Jupiter and Saturn.
To reach M31, the Andromeda galaxy, in a human lifetime would require a velocity of 0.99999 c. Behind the relativistic spacecraft on Earth, millions of years would have passed, but the same crew that departed would reach their destination.
Taken at 4:48 GMT on Feb. 14, 1990, “Pale Blue Dot” and other images that made-up the “Family Portrait” collection were the last thing Voyager 1's cameras ever did.