Voyager 1 will reach a distance of one light-day from Earth on November 18 at 3:46 p.m. Indian Standard Time, according to News On AIR.
A light-day measures the span light covers in 24 hours. Radio signals take a full day to bridge the gap between Earth and the spacecraft.
Launched on September 5, 1977, the probe is pushing through interstellar space at 38,000 miles per hour, as reported by ABP News.
The vehicle weighed 721.9 kilograms. It was designed for a four-year mission to study Jupiter and Saturn.
During its planetary flybys, the probe discovered rings and moons around Jupiter. It found five additional moons and G rings around Saturn.
On February 14, 1990, the spacecraft captured the famous Pale Blue Dot photograph. Engineers then powered down its cameras to conserve energy.
In August 2012, Hindustan said that the vehicle crossed the heliosphere to enter interstellar space.
Carried aboard is a 12-inch gold-plated copper record created by a team led by Carl Sagan. The Golden Record contains 115 images of Earth, and it holds natural sounds like wind, rain, birds, and whales. It includes 90 minutes of music that features “Raga Bhairavi” performed by Indian classical singer Kesarbai Kerkar, alongside greetings recorded in 55 languages.
The cover of the record features a map. The map shows Earth’s location relative to 14 pulsars.
Operating far beyond the reach of solar panels, the probe relies on three plutonium-238 radioisotope thermoelectric generators that produced 470 watts of electricity. Out of 10 original scientific instruments, only two are active.
Remaining scientific instruments are expected to power down entirely by the early 2030s. Power supplies will drop too low to transmit signals back to Earth’s Deep Space Network by 2036, though the vehicle will continue its journey through the Milky Way.
In 300 years, the probe is expected to reach the Oort Cloud. Traversing that region will take 30,000 years.
Voyager 1 is projected to pass within 1.6 light-years of the star Gliese 445 in 40,000 years. The star is located in the constellation Camelopardalis.