Has Voyager 1 Left Our Solar System?

-- yasmine | November 1, 2023

Question:

Hello I hope you are well.as an 17 year old student who is interested in space exploration I was doing research on the voyager missions and while I was watching few educational videos on the same subject I came across something that had me wondering if it’s possible or it’s a not even true, as I was watching the he videos some of the were stating that the voyager 1 did leave the solar system and it was the first man made object to leave the solar system.but I knew it had only gone 22 light hours and our solar system isn’t that small so I did some research and read few articles on NASA’s official website but some resources still suggested it left the solar system.
It would help me so much if you could guide me on this subject.
Thank you so much
I’m looking forward to hearing from you

-- yasmine

Answer:

NASA has stated that the Voyager 1 space craft exited the Solar System on August 25, 2012. I believe that the estimate of the size of the Solar System of 22 light hours, which is about 159 Astronomical Units, is a reasonable estimate. The most distant asteroids in our Solar System are approximately this far away.

-- Jeff Mangum

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