• Question: Has anyone/anything ever been into the Milky Way Galaxy?

    Asked by amber_lucy to Matthew, Neil, Pete, Philippa on 18 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Neil Taylor

      Neil Taylor answered on 18 Mar 2015:

      Hi amber_lucy!

      Well I suppose we are all within the Milky Way Galaxy – our solar system is within it!

      The furthest a human has been is orbiting the moon, as far as I’m aware!

      In terms of putting things into space, the furthest spacecraft we have sent is Voyager 1. It was launched in 1977 to study the outer solar system, but it carried on going after it completed its mission. In late 2013, it was believed to have entered “interstellar space” – i.e. moved outwith the ecosystem of the sun.

      A cool video on this here:

      http://www.space.com/22784-voyager-1-spacecraft-interstellar-space-complete-coverage.html

      Hope this helps!

    • Photo: Pete Symons

      Pete Symons answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      Hi Amber_Lucy,

      We are in the Milky Way Galaxy, but the furthest man made ‘thing’ is Voyager 1, it’s still going, it’s passed all of the known planet in our solar system and has entered Interstellar Space (what ever that means!), I guess some radio waves which we’ve been firing into deep space trying to see if there is other life out there are probably still going and way outside of our galaxy, but I’m guessing.

      NASA link below if you want to know more;

      http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

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