SCIENTISTS are arguing over whether or not the Voyager 1 space probe has passed out of our solar system.
More than 35 years after it launched on a mission to explore the outer planets, NASA's unmanned Voyager spacecraft appears to be in a "new region" of space, a study says.
But NASA's not so certain. It has called the report "premature".
If confirmed, the mission would mark the first man-made object ever to venture so far.
The Voyager 1 "appears to have travelled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere," or the magnetic bubble of charged particles that surround the solar system, said a statement on the American Geophysical Union's website.
The edge of the Solar System.
Researcher Bill Webber, one of the article's authors, acknowledged that the actual location of the spacecraft - whether in interstellar space or just an unknown region beyond the solar system - remains a matter of debate.
"It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that," said Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, according to the AGU's website.
"We're in a new region. And everything we're measuring is different and exciting."
Where the Voyager probes are.
The Voyager science team reported in December 2012 the craft was in a new region called the ``magnetic highway,'' but changes in the magnetic field to show a departure from the solar system have not yet been observed, NASA said.
"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system,'' said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.
"It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space,'' he said.
"A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed.''
Voyager 1's journey has only just begun. It will spend the next several thousand years headed towards Alpha Centauri.
Voyager 1 and its companion Voyager 2 launched in 1977 on a mission to study planets.
They have both kept going, and both are on track to leave the solar system, NASA has said.
For months, experts have been closely watching for hints that Voyager 1 has left the solar system and most have estimated it would likely happen in the next year or two.
NASA has described Voyager 1 - now 18 billion kilometres away from the Sun - and its companion Voyager 2 as "the two most distant active representatives of humanity and its desire to explore."
NASA says the long-running Voyager 1 spacecraft hurtling toward the edge of the solar system has reached another milestone.
The Voyager craft are both carrying gold-plated phonograph records and cartridges on which to play them.
They contain 115 images of Earth life, sounds made by whales, thunder and surf, spoken greetings in various languages and printed messages from former US president Jimmy Carter and former UN chief Kurt Waldheim.
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