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Rick A. Allen

How far is far?

Published 7 months ago • 2 min read

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How Far is Far?

Dear Reader,

We're accustomed in science fiction to throwing around the term "light-year," but do we really have a good feel for just how far that is? I was reminded of this fact recently when I read an article saying that Voyager 1, after nearly 50 years, is almost 1 light-day from home (it will pass that point in November). At that pace, a light-year would take just under 18,000 years.

A light-year is 16 billion miles, but how far is that? Our minds don't really comprehend distances of that magnitude. For comparison:

  • Earth to Moon: 1.3 light-seconds
  • Sun to Earth: 499 light-seconds (or 8.3 light-minutes)
  • Earth to Mars (closest): 4 light-minutes
  • Sun to Pluto: 320 light-minutes (or 5.5 light-hours)

Space is big!

Voyager 1 passed beyond the Solar System 14 years ago, traveling at about 38,000 mph. That's not bad for a relic of 1970's technology, powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators and operating on 69 KB of memory, 8-track tape storage, and software written in Fortran. It's expected to keep operating for just a few more years, and then it will continue drifting through the vastness between stars, carrying a Golden Record containing samples of Earth sounds and data. In 40,000 years, it will pass closely (a mere 1.6 light-years) by the star Gliese 445. Will anyone be there to find it?

What's Rick Reading Now?

I'm enjoying the newest novel from Alastair Reynolds, Halcyon Years. The main character is Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. In history, Gagarin died in a plane crash seven years after his historic flight aboard Vostok 1. In this novel, the famous cosmonaut was frozen after that crash and later put on board a 50-km generations ship headed for a distant star. He was revived, but apparently his fame counted for little, and he became a private detective to pay the bills. So this book is kind of a noir, with Yuri investigating the mysterious deaths of two young scions of powerful families (a familiar theme in Reynolds' books), which I suspect will reveal a greater conspiracy concerning the nature (and destination) of the ship.

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Happy Reading!

Rick A. Allen

The Star Riders series:

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Rick A. Allen

Science Fiction Author

A little about me: I'm an older guy who grew up reading great science fiction by such masters as Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, and Robert Heinlein. My favorite current authors are Neal Stephenson and Alastair Reynolds. I started writing a few years ago to try to create a book (and now series) that I think my younger self would have loved to read. Hopefully you will, too! And if you have any comments, I promise to always read your emails to me, and provide a response. I love hearing from my readers!

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