Probe voyages beyond solar system

For the first time, a manmade object has left the solar system.

US scientists last night confirmed that Nasa’s Voyager 1 probe had become the first manmade object to move beyond the bubble of hot gas from our sun and begin moving in the space between the stars.

The spacecraft was launched in 1977 on a mission to explore the outer planets of our solar system and to possibly journey into the unknown depths of outer space.

“This is the first time that humanity has been able to step outside of the cradle of the solar system to explore the larger galaxy,” said Marc Swisdak, an astrophysicist at the University of Maryland.

The precise position of Voyager has been fiercely debated in the past year, because scientists have not known exactly what it would look like when the spacecraft crossed the boundary of the solar system — and the tool on board that was meant to detect the change broke long ago.

“Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science,” said a statement from Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate.