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How long would it take to get to Jupiter?

Jupiter is 365,676,946 miles from Earth at its closest and 601,797,999 miles at its farthest. A car at 65 mph would need 642 years for the shorter distance and 1,056 years for the longer. A passenger jet at 570 mph would need 73.2 years and 120 years.

365,676,946 mi

Distance at the closest

32 minutes 43 seconds

Light travel time at the closest

642 years

By car at 65 mph

73.2 years

By jet at 570 mph

Swirling cream, brown and blue cloud bands at the edge of Jupiter — The edge of Jupiter in an enhanced-color image from the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft. Image: NASA/JPL.

Travel time by vehicle

Travel time to Jupiter by vehicle
Vehicle	Speed	Closest	Typical	Farthest
Walking	3 mph	13,905 years	18,394 years	22,884 years
Bicycle	12 mph	3,476 years	4,599 years	5,721 years
Car on a highway	65 mph	642 years	849 years	1,056 years
Passenger jet	570 mph	73.2 years	96.8 years	120 years
SR-71 Blackbird, its official speed record	2,193 mph	19.0 years	25.2 years	31.3 years
Voyager 1, about 17 km/s	38,028 mph	401 days	530 days	659 days
Parker Solar Probe at closest approach, 692,000 km/h	429,989 mph	35 days	47 days	58 days
Light	670,616,629 mph	32 minutes 43 seconds	43 minutes 17 seconds	53 minutes 51 seconds

How long real spacecraft took

Voyager 1 needed 547 days and Juno 4.9 years. Spacecraft rarely fly straight at a target. They follow curved paths timed to launch windows, so the trip is longer than the distance alone suggests.

Spacecraft that reached Jupiter
Mission	Launched	Arrived	Trip time	What happened
Voyager 1	September 5, 1977	March 5, 1979	547 days	Closest approach to Jupiter
Juno	August 5, 2011	July 5, 2016	4.9 years	Entered orbit around Jupiter

Why the answer changes

Jupiter is 1.6 times farther away at its farthest than at its closest, so every travel time above is 1.6 times longer at the far end. The distance depends on where both planets are in their orbits. The closest figure is the smallest possible gap, and the typical figure is the midpoint between the closest and the farthest.

Try your own speed

Speed

Unit

Other destinations

The MoonBy car, 145 days at the closest.MarsBy car, 59.5 years at the closest.The SunBy car, 160 years at the closest.VenusBy car, 41.7 years at the closest.

Sources and method

Distances: NASA Planetary Fact Sheet, accessed October 18, 2026. Closest and farthest are the minimum and maximum distance from Earth in NASA's table. Typical is the midpoint, except for the Moon (average distance) and the Sun (mean distance).
Vehicle speeds are round figures chosen for comparison, not measurements. Light travels at 299,792.458 km/s.
Voyager 1: NASA NSSDC closest-approach table; launch date from GCAT.
Juno: NASA JPL press kit for the launch date; orbit insertion time in UTC from Wikipedia.