Hasta la vista, baby.

In 1977, the Voyager 1 space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It’s mission was to photograph Jupiter, Saturn and their respective moons. Three years later it achieved that, and sent stunning images back to Earth. Now, almost 35 years since it was launched, the next step in it’s journey is about to begin.

Voyager 1 is about to do what no man made object has done in our history. It is about to burst through the outer reaches of our Solar System, almost 11 billion miles from the Sun. Best of all, it is still transmitting data, and scientists and astronomers are eagerly lapping up the deep space astronomical and cosmological insights the probe is feeding them. At best, the probe has enough power to continue recording and transmitting data for another 15 years.

Very little is known about the conditions in space beyond our Solar System in interstellar space. The graphic below gives a rough indication of the astronomical distances Voyager has boldly gone, and where it has yet to boldly go.

Voyager 1 is about to push through the outer layer of our Solar System, the pink Heliosphere layer in the image.

[Source: io9]