Contrary to all the hot buzz you’ve been hearing on “the street” today, Voyager 1 — a space probe that was launched all the way back in 1977 and has been cruising out into deep space ever since — has not yet technically become the first man-made craft to leave the solar system, according to NASA, despite a new study that claims it did just that last August.
“It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space,” Ed Stone, a Voyager scientist says in a statement. “In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called ‘the magnetic highway’ where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed.”
Okay? So keep your pants on, everyone! Voyager will leave the solar system soon enough, at which point it will be time to remove your pants.
