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Voyager 1 on the cusp of deep space

Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977, is now some 14 billion km (8.7 billion miles) from the Sun and on the cusp of deep space.

Nasa scientists told a conference in New Orleans on Tuesday that Voyager was moving through a region known as the heliosheath. This is a vast, turbulent expanse where the Sun’s influence ends and particles blown off its surface crash into the thin gas that drifts between the stars. Soon the probe will break into deep space.

Voyager 1 was initially given a mission life of five years but has continued to perform spectacularly.

The craft is carrying a time capsule in the form of a golden gramophone record, complete with stylus, which contains a recording of greetings from Earth in different languages as well as samples of music ranging from Mozart to singer Blind Willie Johnson.

Its twin, Voyager 2, launched a couple of weeks before Voyager 1, is moving on a different trajectory and is some 10.4 billion km (6.5 billion miles) away.

posted by: kyawoo at 06:16 | link | comments |
unmanned missions

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