<p>If you notice carefully, you'll see that their speeds away from the sun are fairly similar (7-9 km/s), and the difference is only in their speeds away from the earth. This is because of a small component of earth's motion around the sun (which is at about 30 km/s) adding to Voyager 1's motion and subtracting from Voyager 2's motion.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-07-02T09:29:37.210Z
2014-07-02T09:29:37.210Z
Takku
<p>I came across <a href="http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/" rel="nofollow">this</a> page which provides (mostly extrapolated) speeds of both voyagers. Assuming they are fairly accurate, any reason why the speed of Voyager 2 (5-6 km/sec) is less than that of Voyager 1 (13 km/sec). </p>

<speed><interstellar-travel><space-probe>
Speed comparison of both voyagers
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# Speed comparison of both voyagers

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-07-02)

I came across [this](http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/) page which provides (mostly extrapolated) speeds of both voyagers. Assuming they are fairly accurate, any reason why the speed of Voyager 2 (5-6 km/sec) is less than that of Voyager 1 (13 km/sec).

**Tags:** speed, interstellar-travel, space-probe


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-07-02. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

If you notice carefully, you'll see that their speeds away from the sun are fairly similar (7-9 km/s), and the difference is only in their speeds away from the earth. This is because of a small component of earth's motion around the sun (which is at about 30 km/s) adding to Voyager 1's motion and subtracting from Voyager 2's motion.


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