Spacecraft escaping the Solar System

[Pete Presland]

i just love the thought of these craft drifting through space for who knows how long?

Spacecraft escaping the Solar System

pioneer 10 has been travelling for nearly 40 years and in space terms is still local to us

[DarkerSky]

I know what you mean - I find it awe-inspiring to think about humankind's inventions out there in the vastness of space, still beeping away !! I wonder where their journies will end? I guess we'll never know

[barkis]

Those two spacecraft opened our eyes to the splendour of the outer planets. What incredible images they sent back to earth.

Voyager One is expected to pass the Heliopause in 2015.

That's when it is beyond the effects of the Solar Wind, and enters Interstellar space. It will be about 40,000 years before it could encounter another star system. It is moving at 17 Km per second.

I just wonder if it's messages from earth will ever be perused by Alien eyes. I do hope so.

Information was supplied by Suite101.com.

Ron.