Mankind reaches the edge of the solar system

Humanity escapes the solar system: 

Voyager 1 signals that it has reached the edge of interstellar space - 11billion miles away

By EDDIE WRENN

UK Daily Mail

With absolutely no attempt at hyperbole, it's fair to say that this is one of - if not the - biggest achievement of the human race.

For, as we speak, an object conceived in the human mind, and built by our tools, and launched from our planet, is sailing out of the further depths of our solar system - and will be the first object made by man (sic) to sail out into interstellar space.

The Voyager 1, built by Nasa and launched in 1977 has spent the last 35 years steadily increasing its distance from Earth, and is now 11,100,000,000 miles away.

Indications over the last week suggest that Voyager 1 is now leaving the heliosphere - the last vestige of this solar system.

 . . . Voyager 1 - which is still managing to communicate with Earth with radio waves that reach us 16 hours later - is beginning to experience a bit of heat.

It is detecting more energetic particles around it, implying it it at the very edge of the heliosheath, which is like a bubble around the solar system, protecting us from the cosmic winds of deep space.

The Voyager entered the heliosphere in 2004.  According to The Atlantic, certain cosmic rays have a hard time entering the heliosphere, but as of last month, the sum of these slower particles increased by about 10 per cent.

This does not necessarily mean we have crossed over - but it means we are getting close.