Article Posted on : - Dec 06, 2011

In this artist's concept, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space, which scientists are calling the stagnation region. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

LOS ANGELES (AP): A long-running NASA spacecraft that's been exploring the fringes of the solar system has entered new territory.

The space agency on Monday said the Voyager 1 spacecraft is in a new region of the solar system that's different than what it's been studying the past five years.

New evidence presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco shows Voyager 1 has reached a point where the sun has little influence.

Voyager 1 still has a little ways to go before it leaves the solar system and enters interstellar space or the space between stars.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are hurtling in opposite directions toward interstellar space.