“Voyager is in interstellar space — the space between the stars.”
– Dr. Ed Stone, Voyager Project Scientist
Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space. The NASA spacecraft, which left Earth on a September morning 36 years ago, has traveled farther than anyone, or anything, in history. Now, it’s in the space between the stars.
Scientists explained that Voyager’s instruments indicated the spacecraft had moved beyond the bubble of hot gas from our Sun and is now moving in the space between the stars. Specifically, data from the probe's Plasma Wave (PWS) instrument, which measures the density of charged particles in Voyager's vicinity, is what indicated the change in environment.
Readings taken in April/May 2013, and October/November, 2012, revealed a near-100-fold jump in the number of protons occupying every cubic centimeter of space.
Scientists theorized that a spike like this would eventually be observed if Voyager could get beyond the influence of the magnetic fields and particle winds that rush off the surface of the Sun.
When the Voyager team put all of their collective data together, including that from other on-board instruments, it was calculated that the moment of escape occurred on or about August 25, 2012.
In terms of distance, that’s approximately 12 billion miles away from Earth. For all intents and purposes, though, the spacecraft has left what is officially defined as the “Solar System” and is now in a completely new domain.
To learn more about the Voyager probe, check out our previous coverage on the spacecraft:
Data from NASA’s Voyager 1 indicates envoy has reached the edge of our solar system
NASA’s Voyager 1 explores new, final region of our solar system
Oh, and for those curious, Voyager 1 will not approach another star for about another 40,000 years, even though it’s moving at a clip of about 100,000 MPH.
Story via: bbc.co.uk
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