NASA's Voyager 'exits' the solar system

A new study says NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft appears to have left the solar system, 35 years after its initial launch into space. But its exact location remains debated and NASA has denied it has left the solar system.  This could help to better predict space weather that can disrupt communications signals on Earth. Solar activity directly impacts Earth's climate, and solar storms can knock out power grids, disrupt radio signals, and interfere with communications, navigation and other satellites in orbit. IRIS is designed to capture detailed images of light moving from the sun's surface, known as the photosphere, into the chromosphere, as well as related data about conditions. IRIS is 1.2 meters long (4 feet) and weighs just over 200 kilograms (440 pounds). It will be watching the sun from a distance of about 640 kilometers (400 miles) above Earth. It rode into orbit on a Pegasus rocket which was in turn dropped from an airplane that took off around sunset from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's central coast.