Voyager 1 and a Featured Picture

According to scientists, the space probe Voyager 1 -- launched in 1977 to study the solar system and possibly introduce Earth to aliens -- has finally left the solar system. They mean it. They're for real this time. This isn't like all the other times this year when the probe was said to have left the system.

Maybe. Possibly. Trust us.

In honor of this event, here is yet another nice picture. Nine years ago this month it was selected as a Picture of the Day, and soon it became a Featured Picture. The image is of the Sombrero Galaxy (aka M104), a picturesque galaxy some 28 light years away that would take about 491,820 years for the Voyager 1 probe to drift to. Give or take a year, of course.

  

Happy Interstellar Day!