Sunday, 15 September 2013

Voyager 1 Leaves Solar System, NASA Confirms

This artist's concept shows the general locations of NASA's two Voyager spacecraft.
Illustration courtesy Caltech/NASA.

Dan Vergano
Published September 12, 2013
It’s official: Voyager 1 has slipped from the solar system.
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 traveled past Jupiter and Saturn and is now more than 11.66 billion miles (18.67 billion kilometers) from the sun, becoming the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Proof of this long-anticipated milestone for the storied spacecraft comes in a study released Thursday by the journal Science and announced at a celebratory NASA headquarters briefing.