NASA's Voyager spacecraft (1 and 2), launched in 1977, are both on a trajectory that will take them out of the Solar System, and into interstellar space. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

It's a slow journey. For an obvious example, in November 2026 Voyager 1 will reach one full light-day from Earth, or the amount of time it takes light to travel in a single day, nearly 50 years after it began its journey. The spacecraft will one day cross the Oort cloud, the hypothetical spherical "shell" of of icy bodies surrounding the Solar System, and into interstellar space, but it is a journey that will take it quite a long time.

At the lower range of estimates, the Oort cloud could begin around 1,000 astronomical units (AU) fr

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