(NASA / Johns Hopkins APL)
The New Horizons probe team has published a snapshot of the most distant man-made object, the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
The photo is timed to coincide with the time New Horizons reaches a distance mark of 50 astronomical units from Earth, according to the NASA.
(NASA / Johns Hopkins APL)
The New Horizons mission was launched in 2006 and for the first time in history received images of Pluto.
The probe also took pictures of Arrocot, the Kuiper Belt object, which has been recognized as a planetesimal left over from the formation of the solar system.
The spacecraft is currently researching the dusty and plasma environment of the Kuiper Belt, observing distant objects and collecting data on the behavior of the solar wind and interstellar ions outside the orbit of Mars.
Soon the probe will reach 50 astronomical units (7.5 billion kilometers) from the Earth and will become the fifth vehicle that was able to do this.
Currently, the signal from New Horizons to Earth and back takes almost 14 hours.
To mark the occasion, scientists released a starfield image taken by New Horizons on December 25, 2020.
It shows the position of Voyager 1, the most distant man-made object, which is currently located at a distance of more than 152 astronomical units from the Sun.
At the time of shooting, the distance between the spacecraft was 18 billion kilometers, Voyager 1 itself is much dimmer than background stars and distant galaxies, so it is extremely difficult to see it.
The New Horizons team managed to determine the coordinates of Voyager 1 thanks to the constant radio exchange of mission with Earth.
It is expected that in May this year, New Horizons will remotely explore 3 objects in the Kuiper Belt, and in the summer will try to find a new target for the flyby.
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Hearing about Voyager 1 & 2 is so fascinating to think that there's a man-made spacecraft so far from Earth and beyond solar system that is still traveling away from us and sending signals since 1970's!
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