After 33 years, there’s one space probe that continues to pay dividends for NASA, and that’s the Voyager 1.  Unlike the Space Shuttle, Voyager 1 is 33 years of age and still going strong.  In fact, the space probe is just about to make history and leave the solar system.  According to NASA analysis of the space probe’s findings, Voyager 1 is on the edge of the solar system.

“When Voyager was launched, the space age itself was only 20 years old, so there was no basis to know that spacecraft could last so long,” Dr. Edward Stone told BBC News.  Dr. Stone is one of the founding members of the Voyager project, which launched on September 5, 1977.  “We had no idea how far we would have to travel to get outside the Solar System. We now know that in roughly five years, we should be outside for the first time.”

Voyager is at an area of space known as the heliosheath, where the sun’s solar winds stop expanding outward and start remaining stable.  Said Dr. Stone, “We have gotten to the point where the wind from the Sun, which until now has always had an outward motion, is no longer moving outward; it is only moving sideways so that it can end up going down the tail of the heliosphere, which is a comet-shaped-like object.”

The next stop is the heliopause, where interstellar space begins.  Meanwhile, Voyager 2 has been hijacked by aliens and alien planets are invading the Milky Way.

Tags: NASA, Voyager 1, space probes, astronomy, Voyager 1 nears end of solar system, Voyager 1 leaves the solar system, space exploration, space probe leaves the solar system, Edward Stone, Voyager leaves the solar system, uncharted territory

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