Voyager Enters Final Frontier

Voyager 1 has crossed into the heliosheath, the region beyond the termination shock:

The termination shock is where the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically charged gas blowing continuously outward from the Sun, is slowed by pressure from gas between the stars. At the termination shock, the solar wind slows abruptly from its average speed of 300 to 700 km per second (700,000 - 1,500,000 miles per hour) and becomes denser and hotter.

The plucky spacecraft, at 27, is almost as old as I am, and continues to send data back, rewarding NASA scientists with a treasure trove of information about the outer reaches of our solar system. Indeed, Voyager and her sister craft, Voyager 2, are likely to keep plugging along:

For their original missions to Jupiter and Saturn, the Voyagers were destined for regions of space far from the Sun, so each was equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators to produce electrical power for the spacecraft systems and instruments. Still operating in remote, cold and dark conditions 27 years later, the Voyagers could last until 2020.

They sure don't make probes the way they used to anymore, do they?

(Hat-tip: Smash)

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]