NASA’s Voyager 1 probe has left the solar system

For the first time ever, a manmade object has left the reaches of our Sun and ventured into the cold, gaseous space between distant stars. NASA believes the Voyager 1 probe passed into interstellar space last summer, when new data reveals there was a critical change in the composition of the particles surrounding the probe. Voyager left Earth 36 years ago and is now roughly 12 billion miles from the Sun. “We expect the fields and particles science instruments on Voyager will continue to send back data through at least 2020,” Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd said in a release. “We can’t wait to see what the Voyager instruments show us next about deep space.”

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