The little gizmo that could

Posted at 11:57 AM on March 20, 2013 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Science

(Photo animation: NASA)

Voyager is gone.

With little fanfare, only a press release from the American Geophysical Union, Voyager 1 has left the solar system.

The next stop in whatever is out there is a star called AC +793888, but you won't know when it pulls within two light years of it. Neither will your kids, grandchildren, great grandchildren or anyone else who might have known you existed because that will be tens of thousands of years from now.

Which is pretty remarkable when you think that even though the planet may not still be here (or at least the people on it ), this thing that we built might still be whizzing along out there. And even more remarkable that we built in the 1970s, a decade known for cheap junk that didn't work long.

If intelligent life ever finds it, they'll also find an audio disk on it carrying photos of earth, some scientific information, greetings from presidents and people who are now dead and a medley of music including whales, Mozart, Blind Willie Johnson, Louis Armstrong and Chuck Berry -- artists who might be a mystery to many of the people on the planet now.

---

Comments (6)

So long little fella, it's been nice knowin' ya.

Posted by boB from WA | March 20, 2013 12:07 PM

---

I hope it doesn't come back to destroy us like in star trek.

Posted by jon | March 20, 2013 12:31 PM

---

Even more amazing, we're still communicating with both Voyagers, and they're both still on active mission.

This twitter account posts data for both probes. Updates are frequent:

https://twitter.com/NASAVoyager2

Posted by Disco | March 20, 2013 12:31 PM

---

Both Voyager probes are still in active mission:

https://twitter.com/NASAVoyager2

Posted by Disco | March 20, 2013 1:11 PM

---

I think it is traveling at around 34,000 miles per hour....

Posted by BJ | March 20, 2013 3:28 PM

---

I don't know, I keep hearing (and saying when something of mine breaks) "They don't make things like they used to."

Posted by Phillip | March 20, 2013 5:36 PM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

E-mail Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Tweet this page
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories