Ask an Explainer
Why can't we send satellites to far planets or to other gallaxies?
We can!
The problem is time and money. Sending things far away requires a lot of work, and had higher risks of failure because it's so far away. Plus, the distance between galaxies is astronomical (excuse the pun). The closest galaxy, Andromeda, is 2.5 MILLION light years away. In comparison, light takes only eight minutes to travel between our sun and the Earth.
Our solar system is a lot more reachable. In fact, we recently sent a probe to Pluto called New Horizons which is still sending us back amazing data.
Over thirty years ago, Voyager was launched from Earth. Today, it is still in the process of leaving our solar system. From there, it will take centuries, maybe even thousands of years to reach the next star. We're exploring at a snail's pace, but we're still exploring.
