'The Voyager-1 spacecraft has become the first manmade object to leave the
SolarSystem.Scientists say the probe's instruments indicate it has
moved beyond the bubble of hot gas from our Sun and is now moving
in the space between the stars.Launched in 1977, Voyager was sent
initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.Today,
the veteran Nasa mission is almost 19 billion km (12 billion miles) from
home.This distance is so vast that it takes 17 hours now for a radio
signal sent from Voyager to reach receivers here on Earth.' (From BBCOnline)
This is so cool, since I remember when the Voyager took off to explore outer space, and was eventually forgotten by most non-scientists. And now - lo and behold - it's still out there chugging along. And, at the average speed I drive to work, it would take me 31,644 years to go as far as Voyager went in 36 years!
As long as I didn't run out of gas first...
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