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| The Voyager-1 spacecraft has become the first manmade object to leave the Solar System. "This is really a key milestone that we'd been hoping we would reach when we started this project over 40 years ago - that we would get a spacecraft into interstellar space," said Prof Ed Stone, the chief scientist on the venture. "Scientifically it's a major milestone, but also historically - this is one of those journeys of exploration like circumnavigating the globe for the first time or having a footprint on the Moon for the first time. This is the first time we've begun to explore the space between the stars," he told BBC News. |
They deserve a dance
of joy, a cheer, a beer
these people who tracked
that small ship into the outer
limit of imagination, the caffeine,
the endless nights brought home
when science goes further,
goes better, does beyond
into the interstellar cloud
of stardust, the dark where
both goatherds and villains
have stared, wondering.
Tricia Knoll is a Portland, Oregon poet. The night sky in western Oregon is frequently obscured by cloud cover. When it's not, she too stares, wondering.