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Spacecraft escaping the Solar System
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Notre Dame Regional High School Observatory;
09:00:25
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This page shows the current positions and other interesting data of the five spacecraft which are leaving the Solar System on escape trajectories - our first emissaries to the stars. On this scale, the nearest star to the Sun would be approximately 100 meters away, and it would take Voyager 1 about 70,000 years to cover that distance.
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View from 90° above ecliptic plane
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View from 10° above ecliptic plane
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| Pioneer 10 | Pioneer 11 | Voyager 2 | Voyager 1 | New Horizons | | Distance from Sun (AU) | 108.412 | 88.020 | 101.674 | 124.255 | 26.431 | | Speed relative to Sun (km/s) | 12.026 | 11.359 | 15.424 | 17.034 | 15.088 | | Speed relative to Sun (AU/year) | 2.537 | 2.396 | 3.254 | 3.593 | 3.183 | | Ecliptic latitude | 3° | 14° | -35° | 35° | 2° | | Declination | 25° 52' | -8° 36' | -56° 14' | 12° 26' | -20° 51' | | Right ascension | 5h 7m | 18h 47m | 19h 57m | 17h 11m | 18h 58m | | Constellation | Taurus | Scutum | Telescopium | Ophiuchus | Sagittarius | | Distance from Earth (AU) | 109.357 | 87.318 | 101.155 | 123.467 | 25.716 | | One-way light time (hours) | 15.16 | 12.10 | 14.02 | 17.11 | 3.56 | | Brightness of Sun from spacecraft (mag) | -16.5 | -17.0 | -16.7 | -16.2 | -19.6 | | Spacecraft still functioning? | no | no | yes | yes | yes | | Launch date | 03/03/1972 | 06/04/1973 | 20/08/1977 | 05/09/1977 | 19/01/2006 |
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