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I am happy to let you know that Voyager 1 has reached, what NASA's scientists name, "the magnetic highway" - a part of space where the sun's magnetic field lines connect with the interstellar ones. It still hasn't reached the outer edge of this zone, that is due to happen anywhere from a few months to a few years. (see the photo below for a more "clear picture") Even NASA is not sure since nothing functioning (yes unbelievably Voyager 1 is still functioning... in part at least as some of its sensors have malfunctioned or have been disabled) has reached this far and it is hard to pinpoint where is the actual edge of our solar system. It is so far away that radio waves need over 17 hours to reach Earth. And as a tribute to human engineering Voyager 1 will continue to function at least for 15-20 more years (for as long as its plutonium core is going to provide energy to power its systems). So it will beam back information for years to come. Absolutely impressive feat... can't really put that in words. I find the Pionner and Voyager crafts to be one of the best (if not the best) investments humanity has even done. Far from their initial goal, going into space with those records, is a huge statement for mankind. It may very well be the last men made thing to survive our possible self-destruction. Only the remote possibility that one day space faring civilization will encounter it and try to understand that data (a small part of our civilization) is worth almost everything. Someone was saying that once mankind will take for the stars (if ever) we should retrieve it and display it in a museum. But I believe its place is out there, beyond the final frontier, a small bottle in a magnificent ocean. Something to remind the universe that we once lived here. This may be our final legacy. You can read the source here.

You may have heard during the last few days/weeks about the jump that Felix Baumgartner is going to take from the very edge of space. If you haven't hard about this - in a nutshell Felix is going to do a skydive from the stratosphere, which is a record altitude of 37 km or 23 miles. In fact he will be the very first human to reach and go beyond the speed of sound without any craft, just in freefall. He is expected to reach a maximum speed of 1100 km/h. Beyond the record speed it seems some important scientific conclusions will be drawn from this jump. Of course he will have a fully pressurised suit and he will go up with a ballon. On a funny note he will take off from the famous Roswell - who knows what he'll met on his way up... Well after some delays caused by weather problems he is about to embark for the jump. You can watch the action live HERE...