Where is Voyager 2 now?
- Distance from the Sun
- 143.7 au 21.5 billion km, on 22 August 2026
- Distance from Earth
- 143.1 au 21.4 billion km, on 22 August 2026
- Radio signal, one way
- 19.8 hours at the speed of light
Where it is
On 22 August 2026 Voyager 2 was about 143.7 astronomical units from the Sun, 21.5 billion kilometres, and about 143.1 au from Earth. Its radio signal takes close to 19.8 hours each way. It is nearer than Voyager 1 and always will be: the two left on different paths and Voyager 2 took the slower one, because it was sent the long way round to reach Uranus and Neptune.
The only spacecraft to have seen all four giants
Voyager 2 launched on 20 August 1977, two weeks before Voyager 1, and flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in turn. It remains the only spacecraft to have studied all four of the outer giant planets at close range, and the only one to have visited Uranus or Neptune at all. It entered interstellar space in 2018.
Which way it went
Voyager 2 is heading about 38 degrees below the plane the planets orbit in, where Voyager 1 climbed roughly 35 degrees above it. The two are leaving in nearly opposite directions out of that plane, which the model makes plain in a way a distance figure cannot.