Distant Saturn in the morning sky.

The Voyager 1 spacecraft will likely outlive planet Earth itself.

The probe was launched back in 1977 in order to study Jupiter and Saturn and is now on its second mission out of the solar system. It will now drift through interstellar space forever.

The Earth will probably be vaporized by the Sun in a few billion years, meanwhile Voyager 1 will probably still be moving through space. If it seems like a lonely journey—it is.

It takes a photon, on average, 170,000 years to travel from the core of the Sun to the surface.

But then just eight minutes to reach Earth after that. Remember, the light from the sun takes 8 minutes!

Jupiter! A picture from the Pioneer 11 spacecraft, december 3, 1974.