Voyager 2 enters interstellar space

Voyager 2 enters interstellar space https://www.beviral.online/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Voyager-2-enters-interstellar-space.jpg

Voyager 2 enters interstellar space







		

Illustration of the positions of the Voyager 1 and 2 probes outside the heliosphere, in interstellar space. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.







For the second time in history, a ship has reached the space between the stars. The Voyager 2 probe has left the heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun.







Comparing data from different probe instruments, mission scientists determined that the ship crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere on November 5. This limit, called heliopause, is where the thin and hot solar wind meets the dense interstellar medium. Your sister, Voyager 1, crossed this limit in 2012, but Voyager 2 loads an instrument still in operation that will provide unprecedented observations of the nature of this entry into interstellar space.








At the moment, Voyager 2 is just over 18,000 million kilometers from Earth. Operators can still communicate with the spacecraft, but the information (which travels at the speed of light) takes about 16.5 hours to travel from the probe to Earth. In comparison, light traveling from the Sun takes approximately 8 minutes to reach Earth.








The most convincing evidence that Voyager 2 came out of the heliosphere comes from the PLS (Plasma Science Experiment) instrument, an instrument that stopped working on Voyager 1 in 1980, long before it crossed the heliopause. Until recently, the space surrounding Voyager 2 was mostly filled with plasma from the Sun. This flow, called the solar wind, creates a bubble - the heliosphere - that surrounds the planets of the Solar System. The PLS uses the electric current of the plasma to detect the speed, density, temperature, pressure and flow of the solar wind. The PLS on board Voyager 2 observed a sharp decrease in the velocity of solar wind particles on November 5. Since that date, the plasma instrument has not observed solar wind flow in the environment around Voyager 2, which makes scientists sure that the probe left the heliosphere.








The Voyager 2 cosmic ray subsystem provided evidence that the probe left the heliosphere. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC.







In addition to the plasma data, members of the scientific team have seen evidence of three other instruments on board - the cosmic ray subsystem, the low-energy charged particle instrument and the magnetometer - which is consistent with the conclusion that Voyager 2 has crossed the heliopause. Team members are eager to continue studying instrument data on board to get a clearer picture of the environment through which Voyager 2 is traveling.








Although the probes have left the heliosphere, Voyager 1 and 2 have not yet left the Solar System, and that will not happen soon. It is considered that the limit of the Solar System is beyond the outer edge of the Oort cloud, a set of small objects that are still under the influence of the sun's gravity. The diameter of the Oort cloud is not known precisely, but it is estimated that it begins at about 1,000 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun and extends to about 100,000 AU. One AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Therefore, Voyager 2 will take about 300 years to reach the inner edge of the Oort cloud and possibly 30,000 years to pass it.








Source: POT






			
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