A US spacecraft launched in 1977 has reached the final frontier at the edge of the Solar System, Belfast Telegraph said.

Scientists say Voyager 1 has entered a "new region" of the Solar System which could be its gateway to interstellar space.

The border region is described as a "magnetic highway" for outgoing charged particles from the sun and incoming particles from the stars.

Scientists are still gathering data from two instruments aboard the ancient spacecraft that measure charged particles.

Voyager 1 and 2 were launched 16 days apart in 1977 on a "grand tour" of planets including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Voyager 1 is now the most distant human-made object, 11 billion miles from the sun. Signals from the probe take around 17 hours to reach Earth. Voyager 2, lagging some way behind, is about nine billion miles from the sun.

Both craft carry pictures and messages for any intelligent aliens that might intercept them as they journey between the stars.

New results from Voyager 1 were presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.