Voyager 1 appears to have, at long last, left our solar system and entered interstellar space, says a University of Maryland-led team of researchers. Carrying Earthly greetings on a gold plated phonograph record and still-operational scientific instruments, including the Low Energy Charged Particle detector designed, built and overseen, in part, by UMD's Space Physics Group, NASA's Voyager 1 has traveled farther from Earth than any other human-made object. And now, these researchers say, it has begun the first exploration of our galaxy beyond the Sun's influence.