Launched in 1977, Voyager 1, along with its friend Voyager 2, were the first probes to collect images of the four outer giants of the Solar System. Voyager 2 is still the only probe to visit Uranus and Neptune.
The cool thing about the Voyagers is that even though their original missions are now long over, they’re still zooming outward. They’re both ridiculously far away now and going super fast. Voyager 1 is the faster of the two, going 38,000 mph or 61,000 km/h — so fast that it would cross the Atlantic Ocean in five minutes. It is about 140 AU away from us as of 2020 and was also the first man—made object to leave the Solar System.
Before they launched, a NASA committee loaded them each up with a time capsule — full of symbols, sounds, and images of Earth — so the probes can one day tell aliens what our deal is. Probably a waste of everyone’s time, but who knows.
Keishinrei 