NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft into Interstellar

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NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has become the second object ever built by human hands to venture out into the space between the stars, following its sister ship Voyager 1. It’s worth remembering what a (very) long, strange trip it has been. It started more than four decades ago.
On Aug. 20, 1977, Voyager 2 set out for the stars--literally. At the time, its distance from the Sun was 1 Astronomical Unit (AU), the mean distance between Earth and the Sun, about 93 million miles (149.6 million kilometers). By July 1979, Voyager 2's distance from the Sun was about 5 Astronomical Units (AU). The spacecraft passed by Jupiter and captured the erupting volcanoes of its moon, Io, in action.
In August of 1981 it was about 9 AU from the Sun, and was observing Saturn’s transfixing rings up close.
By January 1986, it had reached about 19 AU, and had become the first Earthly visitor to the planet Uranus and its moons, including Miranda.
In August 1989 it was at about 30 AU. The spacecraft sped past far distant Neptune, blowing scientists away with its wonders.
November 2018. Distance from the Sun: 119 AU (about 11 billion miles!) The spacecraft escapes the heliosphere, the 'bubble' created by the Sun's solar wind. Voyager 2 will eventually pass through the neighborhood of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. The journey will take 296,000 years.
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