Farthest Space Probe
As the probe sailed toward its main target in 2014 astronomers used the hubble space telescope to find 2014 mu69 a dim object that orbits the sun every 297 earth years on a near circular orbit.
Farthest space probe. In the newsthis year marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of the world s farthest and longest lived spacecraft nasa s voyager 1 and 2. The probe s objectives included flybys of jupiter saturn and saturn s largest moon titan. The probe passed the heliopause at 121 au on 25 august 2012 to enter interstellar space.
Four decades ago they embarked on an ambitious mission to explore the giant outer planets the two outermost of which had never been visited. Fortunately the spacecraft is healthy and functioning properly although it is currently in hibernation. At present the farthest space probe mankind has constructed and launched from earth is voyager 1 which was announced on december 5 2011 to have reached the outer edge of the solar system and entered interstellar space on august 25 2012.
When it slipped into orbit around jupiter in july 2016 nasa s juno probe briefly clocked in at 165 000 mph 266 000 km h making it the fastest spacecraft to date. 14 0 billion mi from earth as of september 17 2020 it is the most distant man made object from earth. Voyager 1 is still active.
That new year s flight past mu69 will be the farthest planetary encounter in history happening one billion miles beyond the pluto system which new horizons famously explored in july 2015 said nasa. It is headed towards an encounter with star ac 79 3888 which lies 17 6 light years from earth in about 40 000 years. Earth s farthest spacecraft voyager 1 is the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space.
It originally was launched along with voyager 2 in 1977 to explore the outer planets in our. Now it s zipping along at more than 700 000 miles 1 1 million kilometers each day moving. At a distance of 150 6 au 22 5 billion km.
New horizons launched in 2006 the probe flew past jupiter in 2007 and pluto on 14 july 2015.