Scientists working on Voyager 1 are receiving further data
suggesting the probe is close to crossing into interstellar
space. The Nasa mission, which launched from Earth in 1977,
could leave our Solar System at any time. It is now detecting a
sharp rise in the number of high-energy particles hitting it
from distant exploded stars. The observation was predicted, and
is another indication that Voyager will soon reach its historic
goal. “The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become
the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, but we
still do not know exactly when that someday will be,” Ed Stone,
the Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, said in a Nasa statement. “The latest
data indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things
are changing more quickly. It is very exciting. We are
approaching the Solar System’s frontier.” Voyager 1 is
travelling at about 17 km per second (38,000 mph), and is almost
18 billion km (11 billion miles) from E