Pioneer 10

Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt and make a flyby of Jupiter, providing valuable data on the gas giant and its moons. Launched on March 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System and enter interstellar space. Its mission ended on March 31, 1997, after over 25 years of operation and communication with Earth. Pioneer 10 carried a plaque designed to serve as a message to any extraterrestrial life that might encounter the spacecraft in the future. The plaque depicted a man and a woman, along with various symbols and information about our location in the galaxy. Pioneer 10 has now traveled over 12 billion miles away from Earth.

Pioneer 10 is in the constellation of Taurus, at a distance of 20,771,260,594.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 05h 16m 04s and the Declination is +26° 02’ 20” (apparent coordinates).

Finder Charts

High precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Pioneer 10 is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

Also check out Where is Pioneer 10?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Pioneer 10 in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

J2000

Additional Information

Rise and Set Times

Today's rise, transit and set times of Pioneer 10 from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Distance from Earth

The distance of Pioneer 10 from Earth is currently 20,771,260,594.0 kilometers, equivalent to 138.8473010799 Astronomical Units. Light takes 19h 14m 45.467s to travel from Pioneer 10 and arrive to us.

The following chart shows the distance of Pioneer 10 from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth. The value of the distance of Pioneer 10 from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest Approach

Between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2049, the closest approach of Pioneer 10 to Earth happens on Tue Jan 1 2013 at a distance of 106.506795 Astronomical Units, or 15,933,189,771 kilometers:

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Pioneer 10 computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
2025 Apr 07	05h 15m 55s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 08	05h 15m 56s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 09	05h 15m 57s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 10	05h 15m 58s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 11	05h 15m 59s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 12	05h 16m 00s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 13	05h 16m 01s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 14	05h 16m 02s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 15	05h 16m 04s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 16	05h 16m 05s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 17	05h 16m 06s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 18	05h 16m 07s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 19	05h 16m 08s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus
2025 Apr 20	05h 16m 09s	+26° 02’ 20”	N.A.	Taurus

Additional Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is Pioneer 10?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is Pioneer 10 from Earth?)
• When does Pioneer 10 rise and set?
• Interactive orbit visualization. 3d visualization showing the orbit of Pioneer 10 with respect to the major Solar System objects.
• 15 days ephemerides. Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Pioneer 10 for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Pioneer 10 in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Pioneer 10 with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.