Voyager 1 Reaches Interstellar Space
Next: August 25, 2027
Beyond the Sun's bubble, still saying hello.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks 25 August 2012, the day NASA's Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to enter interstellar space. Launched in 1977, it had travelled about 18 billion kilometres when it crossed the heliopause, the edge of the bubble of solar wind that surrounds the Sun and its planets. That day the particles from inside the bubble all but vanished from its instruments, while cosmic rays from deep space rose to their highest levels of the whole mission. Voyager 1 was outside, in the space between the stars.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance. Anyone can visit NASA's Voyager pages for the mission's latest news, or explore the Golden Record each Voyager carries, with its sounds of surf, wind, birds and whales, music from many cultures and greetings in 55 languages. It is a good night to look up and think of a small spacecraft, still travelling.
Did you know
- Scientists only confirmed the crossing in 2013, after a burst of material from the Sun reached Voyager 1 and set the plasma around it vibrating 'like a violin string'.
- One of the Golden Record's greetings is in Amoy, a form of Hokkien: 'Friends from space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time.'
- Its twin, Voyager 2, followed it into interstellar space in 2018, and the two are the only spacecraft ever to have worked outside the Sun's bubble.
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