Voyager 1
25,700,000,000km from the Sun — live, +17 every second
Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth: 171 AU from the Sun and receding by 17 km every second. Its radio signal — transmitted with 23 watts, about a fridge lightbulb — takes 23.7 hours to reach us.
▶ Find Voyager 1 in 3D
The farthest thing we have ever touched
Launched on 5 September 1977, Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter and Saturn, then used their gravity to sling itself onto an escape trajectory from the Sun. In August 2012 it crossed the heliopause — the boundary where the Sun's wind gives way to the interstellar medium — becoming the first human-made object in interstellar space. It carries the Golden Record: sounds and images of Earth, chosen for anyone who might one day find it.
After nearly fifty years of continuous flight at 61,000 km/h, Voyager 1 has covered about 0.2% of the distance to the edge of the Sun's gravitational reach — and in 40,000 years it will pass within 1.6 light-years of another star, still travelling.
Voyager 1 by the numbers
Launched
5 September 1977
Speed
17 km/s (61,200 km/h)
Entered interstellar space
August 2012
Transmitter power
23 watts
Power source
plutonium RTG, fading
Expected to fall silent
around 2030
Cargo
the Golden Record
Next star encounter
~40,000 years
In the interactive view, Voyager 1 is a labelled spark far beyond the planets. Switch to 1:1 scale and appreciate the horror: that spark is our species' farthest reach, and it is barely out of the driveway.
Keep going
✓ Facts verified July 2026
Every figure on this page is a real, rounded value checked against primary sources. Found something out of date? See how we keep it accurate.