Voyager 1 Hits Stagnation Region At The Edge Of Solar System
NASA's Voyager 1 has entered a new region between our solar system and the interstellar space. NASA has confirmed the news today with the data obtained over last year uncovering this new region to be some kind of cosmic purgatory. The voyager 1 is a long term mission of NASA and was started way back in 1977. Since then it has been travelling continuously for 33 years to reach the boundary of space. More information about the past updates of the Voyager 1 could be found #-Link-Snipped-#.
This cosmic purgatory seems to have calmed the wind of charged particles flowing from the sun, the magnetic field of our solar system piling up. Add to that, it's apparent that higher-energy particles from inside our solar system are leaking out into interstellar space. Voyager Scientists claim that this proves that what is outside the solar system is pushing us back. The latest findings come from Voyager's Low Energy Charged Particle instrument, Cosmic Ray Subsystem and Magnetometer.
#-Link-Snipped-#
In April 2010, Scientists reported that outward speed of the solar wind was diminishing to zero, which marked the start of the new region. This summer it was confirmed by rolling the spacecraft several times to check if the wind was in opposite direction. Though, no such information was found cementing what the previous reports intended.
Though, it is to be noted that the April 2010 reports claimed that interstellar space had been reached, which is not true, as the boundary space has turned out to be more dynamic than expected.  The Voyager 1 is still approximately 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) distant from the sun and has not encountered interstellar space. It is still located in the heliosphere but the magnetometer onVoyager 1 has found an advancement in terms of the intensity of the magnetic field located within this “stagnation field" between the solar system and space. A 100-fold increase in the intensity of high-energy electrons diffusing into our solar system from outside is also reported hinting that Voyager 1 is approaching the heliosphere, though it could still take few months to few years of time to cross the boundary.
Article Source: NASA's Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge | NASAÂ Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#
This cosmic purgatory seems to have calmed the wind of charged particles flowing from the sun, the magnetic field of our solar system piling up. Add to that, it's apparent that higher-energy particles from inside our solar system are leaking out into interstellar space. Voyager Scientists claim that this proves that what is outside the solar system is pushing us back. The latest findings come from Voyager's Low Energy Charged Particle instrument, Cosmic Ray Subsystem and Magnetometer.
#-Link-Snipped-#
In April 2010, Scientists reported that outward speed of the solar wind was diminishing to zero, which marked the start of the new region. This summer it was confirmed by rolling the spacecraft several times to check if the wind was in opposite direction. Though, no such information was found cementing what the previous reports intended.
Though, it is to be noted that the April 2010 reports claimed that interstellar space had been reached, which is not true, as the boundary space has turned out to be more dynamic than expected.  The Voyager 1 is still approximately 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) distant from the sun and has not encountered interstellar space. It is still located in the heliosphere but the magnetometer onVoyager 1 has found an advancement in terms of the intensity of the magnetic field located within this “stagnation field" between the solar system and space. A 100-fold increase in the intensity of high-energy electrons diffusing into our solar system from outside is also reported hinting that Voyager 1 is approaching the heliosphere, though it could still take few months to few years of time to cross the boundary.
Article Source: NASA's Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge | NASAÂ Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#
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