Voyager 1 Is Getting Closer to Earth—Temporarily

Distance is relative for the interstellar probe.


Voyager 1 is the farthest manmade object from the Earth. But right now, it's getting a little closer. Let Tom Scott explain as he catches up with the probe NASA sent out in 1977.

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The Earth's rotation and Voyager's trajectory match up annually, bringing about a short time in which the two grow slightly closer (because they're moving in about the same direction, but Earth is moving much faster than the spacecraft. This isn't saying all that much given the tremendous distance of the probe, which is in the process of leaving the solar system. But hey, it's nice to get a little closer to an old friend.

In 2013, Voyager became the first man-made machine to achieve interstellar flight, leaving the realm of the sun's influence. The craft, still collecting data, sent back audio from the interstellar region, 11 billion miles from the Earth. "This interstellar exploration, "NASA says, "is the ultimate goal of the Voyager Interstellar Mission."

The probe still has a few years left, but the shutdown process began in 2007 with the termination of its plasma subsystem. In 2020, NASA will start to shut down its scientific instruments, and sometime between 2025 and 2030 the craft will lose the ability to use an instrument of any sort. NASA's official stance on the future of the probe has a somewhat romantic sense to it, fitting for the craft outfitted with a gold record: "The Voyagers are destined," the space agency says, "perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way."

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