REAL LIFE NEWS: VOYAGER CROSSES THE LINE
by Hazed
It’s a farewell to Voyager 1 as it finally leaves the Solar System, having been traveling through the final fringes for several years. NASA reported on Tuesday that the probe has now entered a region of space that is beyond the influence of our sun.
Voyager 1 was launched in 1977. It was tasked to study the outer planets, but after it completed that mission, it just kept on going. It’s now over 18 billion kilometres from the sun, and has exited the heliosphere, the bubble of gas and magnetic fields that originates from the sun.
Now it has officially left Sol, it’s heading for a star called AC +793888 - but it won’t get there for tens of thousands of years. By that time, it is profoundly to be hoped that we’ve made it to the stars ourselves!
Update: Or has it...? The day after I wrote this article my source article was updated to cast doubt on whether Voyager 1 has actually left the Solar System yet, as you will see if you read it.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21866532
For another view of Voyager 1 leaving the Solar System, look at this cartoon - and be sure to hover your mouse over the picture and read the tooltip.
