On Monday, project officials said new information sent back from the ship yielded a surprising result.
"If we would have only looked at particle data alone, we would have said we're out of the solar system," said Tom Krimigis, a scientist from Johns Hopkins University who examines data on low-energy charged particles. "But nature is very imaginative, and Lucy pulled up the football again."
The Voyager team believes this region is where lines of magnetic particles from the solar system are meeting particles from interstellar space.
Because the direction of the magnetic lines is unchanged, the project members count this as part of the solar system. When the direction changes, Voyager 1 will finally be in interstellar space.
"We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space," said project member Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology. "Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn't what we expected, but we've come to expect the unexpected from Voyager."
The spacecraft entered the new region in July, fueling predictions it was getting close to the edge of the solar system.
Voyager 2, which is on a different flight path, is a few billion miles closer to the sun.
The solar system is estimated to be about 4.6 billion years old and has a radius of about 100 astronomical units (AU), which is equivalent to about 9.3 trillion kilometers.
Advancements in technology, specifically the use of powerful telescopes and space probes, have allowed scientists to gather more accurate data and measurements of objects in the solar system, leading to the discovery that it is bigger than previously believed.
This discovery has expanded our knowledge of the size and scale of the solar system, as well as the potential for other objects and phenomena that may exist beyond what we currently know.
It is believed that the solar system is not actively growing, but objects within it may continue to change and evolve over time. However, new discoveries and advancements in technology may also lead to further expansions in our understanding of the solar system.
The solar system is relatively large compared to other known solar systems, but it is also unique in its composition and arrangement of planets. There is still much to be discovered and understood about the vastness of space and the potential for other solar systems to exist.