NASAâ„¢s Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached the edge of the solar system and will enter interstellar space in the near future.
The Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a previously unknown region between the outermost part of the solar system and interstellar space and is about to leave the solar system, new research shows.
Voyager 1 reached an area of space called the magnetic highway on August 25, according to three new papers about the spacecraft published online Thursday by the journal Science.
The magnetic highway is a region on the outer edge of the heliosheath where charged particles travel into and out of the heliosphere — the massive bubble of space surrounded by the heliosheath that contains the solar system.
Although scientists are still uncertain about the distance that Voyager 1 has to cover to reach interstellar space, they believe it will not take too long.
The heliosphere extends at least 8 billion miles beyond all the planets in our solar system.
Voyager 1 was launched in 1977 as part of the Voyager Program and the Voyager Interstellar Mission. It is now more than 11 billion miles away from the Sun.
The spacecraftâ„¢s main mission was to study the planetary systems of Jupiter and Saturn, but after its sibling probe, Voyager 2, made a close flyby of Neptune, NASA extended the two probes’ missions to study the outer boundaries of the solar system, and perhaps beyond.
Voyager 2 is about nine billion miles away from the Sun.
Voyager 1 will be the first man-made object to leave the solar system and enter the wider reaches of the Milky Way.
MN/HGL
Republished with permission from:: Press TV