At 17.4 billion kilometres (10.8 billion miles) from the sun NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has detected a dramatic change in the motion of solar winds.

Solar winds are a stream of charged particles which emanate from the sun travelling outward in every direction at a rate of 400 km per second (250 miles). Analysis from Voyager 1’s data has shown that the velocity of the stream has slowed to zero and is now in fact moving sideways.

It is thought that Voyager 1 has now entered an area called the heliosheath, where solar wind meets interstellar wind causing it to slow down. NASA scientists have hailed this event as a major milestone as the spacecraft nears the region between stars known as interstellar space.

NASA scientists have estimated that Voyager 1 will reach the edge of interstellar space known as the heliopause in around 4 years time. The craft was launched in 1977 and sustained by its radiation power packs is still sending invaluable data back to Earth 33 years on. Its sister spacecraft Voyager 2 is on a different trajectory and travelling at a slower speed. Scientists at NASA expect it too will return the same data in a few years when it reaches the heliosheath.

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