Out there
In the vast reaches of space
Roughly 123 times the distance between
Earth and the Sun
Billions and billions of miles from
Pasadena, California
Where it was built
Voyager 1 continues it's mission
And sends back to Earth
What it learns
For over 35 years
The space probe has been wandering
It has visited Jupiter
And Saturn too
It transmits messages back home at the speed of light
It currently takes over 16 hours for those messages to get here
It is traveling faster
Than any man made object ever has
A blistering 38,000 miles per hour
If it doesn't collide with anything
It will travel one light year
In just a little over 17,500 more years
The nearest star to the sun our blue marble circles
Is Proxima Centauri, roughly 4.2 light years away
If Voyager 1 was headed in that direction
It would take almost 74,000 years to get there
Which, if you are wondering
Is approximately 6 times longer
Than Homo sapiens have cultivated plants
Astronomers have found 853 planets
Outside of our solar system
54 or so may have "habitable zones"
Where life similar to ours may be possible
The closest of these planets is 22 light years away
Which means it would take over 403,000 years
For the fastest object ever made by man to get there
Quite a time-consuming voyage to undertake
To steal a cow
Or probe Billy Bob's ass
You failed to mention that it is only 40 light years from the Overlords home planet to "New Athens"
ReplyDeleteRock on with your Arthur C. Clarke reference!
ReplyDelete