Mastodawn

Prof. Sam Lawler Feb 28, 2024

I just looked up Voyager 1's current position for a talk and saw something wild: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/

The distance between Earth and Voyager 1 is actually *decreasing* right now (even though the distance between Voyager 1 and the Sun is increasing). A website bug?

Nope! Earth moves really fast around the Sun. Right now we're moving faster toward Voyager 1 than it's flying away from us

Earth orbits at 30 km/s around the Sun, Voyager is going "only" 17 km/s. I love orbital dynamics!

Voyager - Mission Status

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Alan

@sundogplanets Wait. You've just reminded me that when you stand completely still you're actually still whirling around the sun at 108,000 km/h and it gets even crazier when you factor in the speed of the sun (which is itself racing through space) and so on. No wonder everyone's stressed all the time.