Are both Voyager 1 and 2 still alive?
In case you missed it, Voyager 1 and 2, both launched in 1977, are still barreling along at about 17 km/second into interstellar space. The initial launch and trajectories placed both Voyagers out of the plane of the solar system, as shown above. After an additional 500 million years, Voyager 1 will complete one full orbit around the Milky Way. However, Voyager leaving the Milky Way itself is highly unlikely. For this to happen, our galaxy would need to be moving at a speed of around **550 kilometers per second**.Much of interstellar space is actually inside our solar system. It will take about 300 years for Voyager 1 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and possibly about 30,000 years to fly beyond it. Alpha Centauri is currently the closest star to our solar system.Within a billion years, Voyager will get to the opposite side of the Milky-Way disk relative to the Sun. By the time it gets there, the Sun will boil off all oceans on Earth, making it inhabitable . As a result, NASA might not be around to celebrate this remarkable milestone in Voyager’s journey.
Why doesn’t Voyager hit anything?
Voyager 1 could have been aimed on to Pluto, but exploration of Titan and the rings of Saturn was a primary scientific objective. This caused the trajectory to be diverted upward out of the ecliptic plane such that no further planetary encounters were possible for Voyager 1. One Plutonian year corresponds to 247. Earth years; thus, in 2178, Pluto will complete its first orbit since its discovery.Back in 1980, when controllers were deciding on adjustments to the trajectory of Voyager 1, Pluto was an option, as New Horizons PI Alan Stern has pointed out. The spacecraft could have reached Pluto in the spring of 1986, not long after Voyager 2’s flyby of Uranus in January of that year.On March 23, 2178, Pluto will finish its first complete trip around the Sun since its discovery in 1930 — a milestone no human has ever seen. A single year on Pluto lasts about 248 Earth years, so since the moment it was found, it has been slowly moving through space without completing even one full orbit.
How has Voyager 1 not hit anything?
The Voyager spacecrafts’ remarkable journey through space without crashing into anything boils down to the vastness of space and precise navigation. Space is incredibly empty. Even though it might seem crowded with stars, planets, asteroids, and comets, the distances between these objects are enormous. Voyager 1, launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, stands as one of humanity’s greatest technological triumphs. Now more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, it remains the farthest human-made object in space — still transmitting faint signals across the cosmic void.