On 25 August 2012, at a distance of about 121 times the Earth-Sun distance, Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause, the boundary at which the solar wind gives way to the plasma of interstellar space. Scientists confirmed it only in 2013, when a solar outburst caused the surrounding plasma to vibrate. Voyager 1 was the first human-made object to leave the Sun's bubble, and it is now more than 160 times as far from the Sun as Earth, receiving its commands with a delay of nearly a day. Voyager 2 followed in November 2018.
Before and after
- 2 August 2012Release of Clash of Clans
- 6 August 2012Curiosity lands in Gale crater
- 16 August 2012Marikana miners' strike
- 25 August 2012Death of Neil Armstrong
- 25 August 2012Voyager 1 enters interstellar space
- 16 September 2012Arctic sea ice reaches a record low
- 21 September 2012Discovery of C/2012 S1
- 29 September 2012Death of Hebe Camargo
- 1 October 2012Creation of TypeScript
More in Exploration & discovery
- from 4 October 1957 to 1 July 1975Space race
- 2 March 1958The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the crossing
- 23 January 1960Piccard and Walsh reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep
- 24 December 1968Apollo 8 orbits the Moon and photographs Earthrise
- 11 January 2008Death of Edmund Hillary
- 14 July 2015New Horizons flies by Pluto
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.