NASA’s Voyager 1 probe, launched back in 1977 to explore the outer reaches of our solar system, is due to reach one light day away from our planet. It originally set off to study Saturn and Jupiter for thirty months but during August 2012, it passed through the edge of our solar system known as the heliosphere. It is currently the furthest human-made object in our universe.As Voyager 1 traveled towards Jupiter on March 5th 1979, it discovered the ring that surrounds the planet as well as two new Jovian moons that had never been seen before Metis and Thebe. It also took pictures of Jupiter’s clouds and four of Jupiter’s main moons: Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io. The closest approach to Saturn happened on November 12th 1980. Five new moons were found as well as a new ring that had not been spotted before. This ring, called the G-ring, contains lots of small moons that help to keep the rings in orbit.Nearly 50 years of space discoveriesResearchers studied the atmosphere of the moon Titan and found it to be made up largely of nitrogen (about 90%) with some hydrocarbons and methane. This could mean that it would be able to help start the development of pre-biotic chemistry. On January 1st 1990, the Voyager Interstellar Mission began as the probe traveled further through our solar system. On February 26th 1998, Voyager 1 became the farthest human-made object in space after surpassing Pioneer 10. On August 25th 2012, Voyager 1 passed through the heliosphere to study the interstellar medium. The probe took the famous Pale Blue Dot picture of our planet from 40 AU away.Despite travelling for fifty years, NASA is still receiving signals from the probe. However, with less power left, NASA has been turning off equipment. Recently another piece of equipment was turned off to ensure that data can continue to be sent back. There are only four pieces of scientific equipment left on board Voyager 1. These are the magnetometer, plasma wave’s instrument, and cosmic ray telescope and low energy charged particle instrument. The probe is powered by three RTGs (radioisotope thermoelectric generators). They use the heat produced by the decay of plutonium-238 to create electricity. The probe also contains a 30cm gold-plated copper record known as the “Golden Record”. This contains 115 pictures of life on earth, 90 minutes of music, greetings in 55 languages and sounds from earth. It also contains messages from former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim and former American President Jimmy Carter. The probe is almost one light day away meaning that any radio waves or light between Earth and the probe will take 24 hours to reach each other. The journey that Voyager 1 has undertaken is amazing and has given researchers valuable information about what lies outside our solar system.