Voyager 2 is one of the fastest craft mankind has ever built, clocking in at a staggering 57,890 km/h. In fact, the only higher velocities we have been able to generate was during orbits of gas giants!

Godspeed you brave little beauty!

As far as distance goes, Voyager 2 is the third furthest man-made object from the Earth, at a distance of 116 astronomical units. Only Voyager 1 (141) and Pioneer 10 (120) are currently further. Pioneer 10, though, is significantly slower than Voyager 2 and during 2019, Voyager 2 will claim the second spot on the list.

So Voyager 2 is amongst the fastest things we’ve ever built and it is amongst the FURTHEST things we’ve ever sent. But it won’t be anywhere close to a light-year, anytime soon.

1 light year is equivalent to 63241.077 astronomical units. Voyager 1&2’s hundred plus tax looks positively paltry against that immense figure.

So how long exactly?

In a unit we actually can grasp, a light-year is 9,461,000,000,000 – or rather 9.461 trillion – kilometres. Currently, Voyager 2 is at 10,780,000,000 km. So … subtract roughly 10 billion from 9.5 trillion and you get … roughly 9.5 trillion. Still.

Seriously, Voyager 2 is not even close. So anyway, take that massive value you get, THAT is how far V2 needs to go to get to a light-year. Then, divide by its velocity – say 58,000km/h.

That gives us 162 934 828 hours. Divide by 24 to get days and then by 365 to get years.

I get about 18,600 years.