NASA has announced plans for two probes that will travel further than any man-made objects in history.
The unnamed spacecraft will reach a staggering 92billion miles from our planet following their launches, set for 2030.
Thats seven times further than the record set by Nasas Voyager 1 and 2 probes, currently the furthest machines from Earth.
Both launched in 1977 and now sit just beyond the edge of the Solar System, or about 13billion miles away.
Proposals for an unnamed pair of probes were unveiled by Nasa last week at a space conference in Washington D.C.
This is humanitys first explicit step into interstellar space, said Dr Pontus Brandt, a physicist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
AP:Associated Press
Put forward by Dr Leon Alkalai, who works at Nasas Jet Propulsion laboratory in California, the two probes would weigh 800 kilos.
Thats a little more than your average dairy cow, allowing the vessels to sail for great distances on little fuel.
To help them along on their journey, the probes would gather momentum by performing close passes of huge space objects.
These flybys would take advantage of the gravity of the Sun or Jupiter to slingshot the probes at speeds well over 100,000 mph.
Nasa
Scientists hope to use the missions to study a the mysterious outer regions of the Solar System and beyond.
Theyre keen to find out more about how space radiation enters our star system, and how solar radiation leaves.
Experts will submit the project for consideration by Nasa at the end of 2021.
Its not clear whether or not the space agency will choose to fund the mission.
Nasa
If selected by Nasa, the probes could fly as early as 2030, researchers said.
Its time we have a vision we can actually execute, Dr Ralph McNutt, a physicist at the Applied Physics Laboratory.
Up to now, people havent thought about this as an engineering problem. They kick the can down the road, saying: Well, we just need a little bit more new technology.
The plans were unveiled last week at the 2019 International Astronomical Congress.
The news comes almost a year after Voyager 2 became only the second man-made object ever to enter interstellar space.
Going where no machine has gone before...
Juno
New Horizons
Voyager 1
Voyager 2
According to Nasa, mission scientists were able to determine that the probe crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere on November 5, 2018.
This boundary is called the heliopause where hot solar winds meet the cold and dense intestellar medium.
Twin probe Voyager 1 crossed this boundary back in 2012.
But Voyager 2 is arguably more exciting, because it carries a working instrument that can provide brand new observations.
Specifically, it will measure the density and temperature of interstellar plasma, giving us new insight into a world beyond our solar system.
In other news, Nasa recently uncovered18 Earth-sized planetslurking outside our Solar System and one offers hope for life.
Watery Super Earths may hide unfathomably deep bottomless oceans withalien life lurking inside.
And, analien grain of dustfired at Earth by ancient exploding starhas been found buried in Antarctica.
What do you think Nasa will find in deep space? Let us know in the comments
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