Dragonsymphony1 t1_iu1c6uj wrote on October 27, 2022 at 8:38 PM

Well the closest exoplanet is proxima centauri B. That's 4 light years away. Closest star is Alpha Centauri, that's 4.3 light years away. So if there's life around those at the very minimal it'd be Voyager that they ..find. Voyager is nearing 15 billion miles away. Subtract that from the relative distance 4 light years is, like 1.06(I think) trillion miles for one light year. Then do the math of 16000 mph to cover that distance, you'd have plus a return trip(if whatever was sent was at that same speed) and you've got a rough idea.

Translation, dependent on MANY ifs, A VERY long time.

PedestalPotato t1_iu1koen wrote on October 27, 2022 at 9:35 PM

This. Voyager won't even break out of the Oort cloud for another 30,000+ years at it's current velocity of 17km/s, and it'll be long dead by then. That's if it even makes it that far, assuming it doesn't collide with anything or have its tragectory altered by passing massive objects.

pompanoJ t1_iu2pa9o wrote on October 28, 2022 at 2:43 AM

I have it on good authority that it will be picked up by a race of sentient machines, repaired, given an artificial intelligence, and returned to earth.