The first spacecraft to leave the boundaries of the solar system in 40 years

Artist’s impression of Pioneer 10 in front of Jupiter

What does it look like outside our solar system? Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to take a look.

American space probePioneer 10Tuesday , June 13thExactly before that 40 years It was the first spacecraft to fly beyond the known boundaries of our solar system, according to NASA calculations. 20 billion km from the Sun.

The probe was on March 3, 1972 It started from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida, and in the following years flew through the asteroid belt, Jupiter and Saturn, among others.

On June 13, 1983, Pioneer 10 orbited Neptune, becoming the first man-made spacecraft to fly past the most distant known planet in our solar system, according to NASA. Neptune averages 4.5 billion km away from the sun.

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Voyager 1 has overtaken Pioneer 10

with “Raid 11Then similar missions followed the Voyager probes.Voyager 1It finally overtook Pioneer 10 as the farthest man-made object. For the last time, Pioneer 10 was transmitted in January 2003 Dates, try a connection in march 2006 to fail. Originally, however, the task was also nOnly up to 21 months was created.

In case Pioneer 10 encounters “intelligent life” on its journey, according to NASA, there is one on the rover aluminum plate suitable. Includes illustrations from A man, a woman and our solar system.