Sizing up our solar system

Space is big, and it's filled with a lot of space. It takes a long time to get anywhere, even if we're trying to just get out of our own neighborhood.

How long? Here's an idea: Voyager 1 was launched from Earth in 1977, and right now it is the farthest man-made object from Earth, taking over 30 years to get just to the edge of our solar system in its long journey to a Star Trek appearance.

But, really, how far is that? Well, Space.com has a convenient scale representation of our solar system that begins with our sun and ends with Voyager 1's position. Take a look at it, and see how far we've got to go if we are ever going to become a spacefaring race.


Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

That's some journey.