Nasa’s Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is nearing the outer boundary of the solar system and may already be “dancing on the edge” of outer space, the experts behind the pioneering craft said. In a lecture marking the 35th anniversary Wedne-sday of the space craft’s launch, Ed Stone said it could be “days, months or years” before it finally breaks into interstellar space. Earlier this year a surge in a key indicator fueled hopes that the craft was nearing the so-called heliopause, which marks the boundary between our solar system and outer space. Scientists were intrigued in May by an increase in cosmic rays hitting the spacecraft, whi-ch for decades has snapped images of the Earth and other planets in the solar system as it has made its long journey into outer space. But measurements since then have fluctuated up and down, indicating that, while the craft is near to the edge, it may still not get there for some time.
“The question is, how much further is it to the heliopause?” Stone asked at the lecture on Tuesday at the Jet Propulsion Labo-ratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “We don’t know .. Whether we’re dancing along the edge of a new region which is connected to the outside,” added Stone, a Voyager project scientist. — PTI