zlacker

>>belter+(OP)
> The probe is currently around 32 billion kilometers from Earth, and gets 15km further away every second.

I beg anybody to rephrase it understandingly with using some units similar to football fields. Is it possible to launch a little cheap rocket with a transmitter just to correct Voyager's position?

>>eimrin+m6
It's about 3.5 trillion NFL football fields away. 15km/s is about 33,000 mph - more than 10x the speed of sound, and faster than a bullet. Does that help?

We are talking about distances that are so big, there is no comparison that makes sense. Nothing else IS that big. The numbers are literally "astronomical". If you're struggling to wrap your head around it, you're doing it right.

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." -- Douglas Adams

>>ohtheh+y8
When you start getting beyond the "thousands of football fields" it starts becoming difficult to conceptualize. In this case, even though GP was asking for football fields, it may be easier to visualize it as flying nearly 800 thousand times around the entire equator of earth. And voyager is going around the equator roughly once every 45 minutes or so.

So to catch up, you would have to be faster. Let's say you were able to travel around the equator in 15 minutes, so you're gaining 30 minutes per equator. If my napkin math is right, it would take you roughly 45 years to catch up to voyager.

>>chesch+wb
> 800 thousand times around the entire equator of earth

This probably wasn't your intention, but putting it in terms like this, for me anyway, actually drives home just how short a distance the Voyager probes have travelled.

>>messe+4E1
I just wanted to make the distance something that could be understood and processed. Sounds like it worked!

>>chesch+CF1
You definitely did a good job. I'm an avid sci-fi reader, write it as a hobby, spend a not-insignificant amount of my free time reading up on space news, and even have a degree in mathematical physics; this is the first time in a long time that an analogical choice of units has had an impact on my perception like that. Well done!