NASA’s Voyager 1 Has Left the Solar System

NASA’s Voyager 1 Spacecraft left Earth more than 35 years ago and has traveled over 11.7 billion miles. It recently entered the unexpected and as yet unexplained heliosheath depletion region. On Thursday, September 12, NASA officially declared that Voyager 1 has become the first man-made object to leave the solar system (calculating that it officially occurred on August 25, 2012). It is so far away that signals transmitted from Voyager 1 now take about 17 hours to reach NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory back here on Earth and it continues to travel at 38,000 miles per hour.

What an incredible day. Mankind has journeyed beyond the Sun’s reach for the first time in history. Farewell to the little spacecraft that has exceeded all expectations!