This week, NASA officials confirmed that the spacecraft Voyager 1 has left the solar system.
The probe is now traveling through what is called interstellar space, a part of space between stars that's nearly 12 billion miles from Earth. Scientists said that they believe Voyager 1 made the historic passage back in August 2012, but it has taken several months of analyzing data to determine since an instrument that could confirm the crossing failed in 1980.
Elizabeth Howell, an award-winning freelance journalist specializing in space, said that Voyager 1 has been providing us data for about 31 years longer than expected.
"It is incredible that it has survived for so long, in fact, the signal from Voyager is not even as strong as a lightbulb, that takes many hours to get to Earth," she siad.
She said the probe has provided us the first data on about the planets and moons of Jupiter and Saturn. It also carries information about humans here on planet Earth.
"It also carries a golden record with greetings in many different languages, sounds such a humpback whales, and other various sounds found here on Earth and it also has a map that would show any celestial being where we might be," she said.
The rest of Voyager's journey is unknown. Instrumentation on the space probe is expected to last until 2025, when the last power source will be turned off.
