On the evening of November 17, people across the world are being invited to step outside, lift a small light toward the sky, and tap out the letters V, G and R in Morse code for a spacecraft that cannot see them. The gesture marks a distance rather than a discovery: Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is about to become the first human-made object to sit one full light-day from home. It is a quiet human way of acknowledging how far our small machines have traveled, even as the machine itself is slowly running out of the power that has kept it talking.
NASA Invites Public to Flash Morse Code at Voyager 1 as It Reaches One Light-Day from Earth
A signal takes a full day to arrive, and the reply takes another.
Mark
Why does one light-day matter? It's just another number on a distance that's already absurd.
Mimi
It turns distance into time you can feel. A signal sent to Voyager 1 takes a full day to arrive, and a reply takes another day. The Moon is 1.3 seconds away. This is a day.
Mark
And NASA wants people to flash lights at it?
Mimi
Yes, the letters VGR in Morse code, from any light source. There's even a flasher on NASA's site for phones and tablets.
Luke
Let me be plain: the light won't reach the spacecraft in any useful sense, and the source says the event is symbolic. Nobody expects Voyager to receive it.
Mimi
Right, and NASA doesn't pretend otherwise. It's a celebration of humanity's farthest reach.
Mark
Is the spacecraft in good shape?
Mimi
Mostly. It lost communication briefly on October 18 and 19 after a long effort to stretch its shrinking power. That was fixed.
Luke
Worth noting the source says it's likely to last a few more years. That's a general expectation, not a firm date, and I wouldn't read more precision into it.
Mark
Anything odd about the dates?
Luke
Yes. The event is on November 17, but the one-light-day mark is at 5:16 am EST on November 18. The source gives both, so check NASA's page for the exact timing.
Il Polso
- A spacecraft launched in 1977 is about to reach a distance where a signal needs a full day to arrive.
- Thousands of people are being asked to flash Morse code from backyards and sidewalks toward a ship that will never see it.
- NASA is offering a ready-made flasher and simple hand-signal instructions so anyone can join the message.
- Voyager 1's power is dwindling, and a brief communication outage in October reminded the team how fragile the mission has become.
On the evening of November 17, people across the world are being invited to step outside, lift a small light toward the sky, and tap out the letters V, G and R in Morse code for a spacecraft that cannot see them. The gesture marks a distance rather than a discovery: Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is about to become the first human-made object to sit one full light-day from home. It is a quiet human way of acknowledging how far our small machines have traveled, even as the machine itself is slowly running out of the power that has kept it talking.
On the evening of November 17, NASA is asking people to step outside with whatever light they have, a flashlight, a bike light, a glow stick or a phone, and flash the letters V, G and R in Morse code toward the sky. The letters stand for Voyager, and the audience is a spacecraft that will not see a thing.
The occasion is distance. On November 18, Voyager 1 will be about 16.09 billion miles from Earth, one full light-day. A signal sent at the speed of light would need a whole day to reach it, and any reply would need another day to return. No human-made object has ever been this far away.
NASA has named the effort 'Shine Bright for Voyager's Light-Day.' Its flasher runs on a phone or tablet, but anyone can do it by hand: cover a light with cardboard or a palm, keep dots brief and dashes longer, and repeat the sequence for a minute. Participants are encouraged to share photos and videos online.
Voyager 1 launched in 1977 and became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space in 2012. It is still drifting toward the star Gliese 445, and its early career brought discoveries at Jupiter and Saturn, from new rings to new moons.
Its future is less certain. Its power is diminishing and may last only a few more years. A brief loss of contact in October, after engineers stretched that power, was fixed, and the ship is communicating normally again. The light-day milestone arrives while Voyager is still working, but aging, and the flashes will be symbolic, a way for people on Earth to mark how far their machine has gone.
On the evening of November 17, NASA is asking people to step outside with a flashlight, a bike light, a glow stick or a phone, point it at the sky, and flash three letters in Morse code. The letters are V, G and R, short for Voyager. The audience is a spacecraft launched in 1977 that will not see a thing.
The occasion is a distance. At 5:16 am EST on November 18, Voyager 1 will be about 16.09 billion miles (25.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, one full light-day. A one-way signal, traveling at the speed of light, will need a whole day to cover that gap, and any reply from the spacecraft would need another 24 hours to come back. For comparison, light crosses from the Moon to Earth in about 1.3 seconds and from the Sun in about eight minutes and 20 seconds. No other human-made object has ever been this far away.
NASA has named the event 'Shine Bright for Voyager's Light-Day.' The agency has built a Morse code flasher that runs on a phone or tablet, but you can also do it by hand. V is dot-dot-dot-dash, G is dash-dash-dot, and R is dot-dash-dot. To flash with an ordinary light, cover it with your hand or a piece of cardboard: less than a second for a dot, about a second for a dash. Leave a one-second pause between letters, and keep repeating the sequence for a minute. NASA also asks participants to share photos and videos on social platforms and tag them. The gesture is symbolic, a way to mark humanity's farthest reach.
Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977. On August 25, 2012, it became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system and enter interstellar space. According to NASA, it is moving at about 38,000 mph toward Gliese 445, a star in the constellation Ursa Minor, and is expected to pass within roughly 1.7 light-years of it in about 40,000 years.
The spacecraft's early career produced a long list of discoveries. At Jupiter, it found a thin ring and two new moons, Thebe and Metis. At Saturn, it found five new moons and a new ring called the G-ring. Nearly 50 years after launch, it is still gathering data from the outer reaches of space.
That work is not guaranteed to continue for long. The spacecraft's power supply is diminishing, and it is likely to last only a few more years. Last month, Voyager 1 briefly lost communication on October 18 and 19, after the mission team finished a months-long effort to stretch that dwindling power. The problem was fixed, and the spacecraft is communicating as usual again.
So the light-day milestone arrives while Voyager 1 is working but aging. The flashes on November 17 will take a day to reach where it will be, and the ship can't answer in any way that matters to the people holding the lights. What to watch next is the mission team's management of its power, which decides how many more milestones like this one there will be.
Citazioni salienti
NASA advises pausing one second between letters and repeating the 'VGR' signal for a minute.— NASA guidance for the event
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