The spacecraft Voyager 1 is tasked with exploring  the areas beyond our solar system’s planets. It’s currently 24 billion km out, about 6 and a half  times further than the distance between the Sun and Pluto.

Conditions are harsh in interstellar space, as outside the Sun’s protective magnetic field you are constantly bombarded by cosmic rays  and interstellar radiation. It is the furthest out that any human spacecraft has ever gone.

Although it’s over 45 years old now,and its power supplies are dwindling,

Voyager  1 has been consistently providing fascinating

data about cosmic rays, magnetic fields, and  other features of the interstellar medium. So it was strange when one day, the  signals coming from Voyager 1 went… weird.