Full Answer
approximately 14.5 billion milesVoyager 1's interstellar adventures As of January 2022, Voyager 1 is roughly 156 AU from Earth — approximately 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion km). You can keep tabs on the probe's current distance on this NASA website (opens in new tab).
about 11 billion milesCurrently Voyager 2 is about 11 billion miles from the Earth, and has been traveling at speeds of tens of thousands of miles per hour since its launch in 1977. Read more to see where it is now and what we've learned.
14 1/2 billion milesThe most distant artificial object is the spacecraft Voyager 1, which – in November 2021 – is nearly 14 1/2 billion miles (23 billion km) from Earth. Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune.
As of April 2020, Voyager 1 is at a distance of 22.3 billion kilometers (149.0 AU) from the Sun. Voyager 2 was at a distance of 18.5 billion kilometers (123.6 AU). Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.6 AU per year.
A light-year is 9.5 trillion kilometers. By division, that means it's going to take Voyager 17,720 years to travel ONE light year. That's 80,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, 4.5 light years away.
1.7 light-yearsIn about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass 1.7 light-years (9.7 trillion miles) from the star Ross 248 and in about 296,000 years, it will pass 4.3 light-years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
Where is the Voyager 1 spacecraft now? As of November 4, 2021, Voyager 1 is believed to be more than 14.4 billion miles from Earth, NASA reports. Despite being having been in operation for 44 years plus, it still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and to transmit data.
Voyager 1 Encounters Jupiter Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to Jupiter. Highlights of the encounter include the discoveries of the first active volcanoes spotted beyond Earth at the moon Io (discovered on March 9 in optical navigation images), the Jovian ring system and two moons (Thebe and Metis).
Voyager 1 and 2 are still in the "neighborhood" of our solar system and very close to our Sun compared to any other star. They are roughly three times farther from the Sun than Neptune and Pluto and so already past the Kuiper belt where New Horizons is currently traveling.
Pioneer 10, the next most distant, is about 15.4 billion kilometers (9.6 billion miles) away from the sun on the opposite side of the solar system. Voyager 2 is about 14.2 billion kilometers (8.8 billion miles) away from the sun on a southward trajectory, on the same side of the solar system as Voyager 1.
Voyager 1 is expected to keep its current suite of science instruments on through 2021. Voyager 2 is expected to keep its current suite of science instruments on through 2020.
Nope. They have small amounts of hydrazine fuel left and have no possible way to slow down and head back. They are traveling very fast (Voyager 1 is at 38,088 mph or 17.027 km/s relative to the sun) and have very little ability to change speed now.