Voyager Spacecraft will enter Interstellar Space



Good bye Voyagers, our interstellar ambassadors! Credit: NASA

You heard it! These incredible probes will be the first man-made objects to exit the Solar System. Of course there will be many others but we will be a bit too old to catch them. In this moment the space probes are in the Heliosphere which has the outermost layer of the solar System- The Heliosheath.

No one knows exactly how many more miles the Voyagers must travel before they "pop free" into interstellar space. Most researchers believe, however, that the end is near. "The heliosheath is 3 to 4 billion miles in thickness," estimates Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "That means we'll be out within five years or so."

Scientists say that there is plenty of power for both Voyagers(1 & 2) but in 2020 critical subsystems will shut down and "Voyager will become our silent ambassador to the stars." said Stone.


--Voyager 1 is not heading towards any particular star, but in about 40,000 years it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888(Wikipedia link) in the constellation Camelopardalis.
--Voyager 2 is not headed toward any particular star. If left alone, it should pass by star Sirius, which is currently about 2.6 parsecs from the Sun


And now here is a video about the Great Voyager spacecraft:




If you would like to read more, visit this link. Also if you want to find out cool things about Voyager, click the image below: