Voyager I Leaving our Solar System (moved from ATSNN), page 1

Voyager I, launched in 1977 and the most distant man-made object in our solar system has reached the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. The probe, now 8.7 billion miles from the Sun, has passed termination shock and is now entering the heliosheath.

www.cnn.com
"Voyager has entered the final lap on its race to the edge of interstellar space, as it begins exploring the solar system's final frontier," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement on the Web site Tuesday.

At 8.7 billion miles from the sun, Voyager I has entered the heliosheath, a region beyond termination shock -- the critical boundary that marks the transition from the solar system into interstellar space.

Instruments aboard Voyager I able to measure the solar wind's speed suggest the probe "has passed through the termination shock into the slower, denser wind beyond," NASA's Web site says.

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Those of us pondering the existence of conspiracies, the allure of alien technologies, and the concern over the truth can all marvel at the simple thought that a product of the hands of man is about the leave our solar system and begin exploration of interstellar space. While it may, on the surface, appear to be a small feat, it is truly a momentus occasion in our history. For the first time, man will have ventured beyond the system of planets orbiting our home star and will have "touched" the space between stars. We will have left our stellar home and begin a journey to a place where we could only theorize about previously.

We may not learn much or we may learn things we had never expected. Whatever we learn, it will be something we didn't know before, making us all that much richer. Those who adhere to the motto "deny ignorance" can cling to one small truth -- Voyager I has gone where no man has gone before. No lies, no guesswork, no theories... just a plain, simple fact.