After 35 years, 6 months and 15 days first man-made spacecraft leaves solar system

22 March, 2013

Hundreds of researchers are trying to find out what Stephen Hawking called as the zero event of Universe. From what we know, researchers have said that there is more than one Solar System but hard hitting proof is yet to come. However, with NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, which has exited our Solar System after 35 years, 6 months and 15 days, new barriers are expected to be broken.

Voyager was launched on a vehicle named Titan IIIE-Centuar from Space Launch from Space Launch Complex 41 in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on September 5, 1977 to study outer solar system - planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. If what the scientists claimed on Wednesday is true, then the Voyager would be the first man-made object to go beyond the known universe. Presently, this aircraft is moving at a rate of more than 18 billion km from Earth, or 123 times the distance between our planet and the Sun.

A press release issued by American Geophysical Union said that the Voyager has seen drastic changes in radiation levels, more than 11 billion miles from the Sun. Commenting on a big change that took place on August 25 last year, Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, said, “Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere.”

While some scientists feel strongly about Voyager's outer solar system travel, a debate regarding the same is on as some scientists believe Voyager has reached an interstellar space or entered a separate, undefined region beyond the solar system. Stone, while hopeful of the Voyager also said that more proof is needed to confirm that the Voyager has indeed left the Solar System.