In 2012 , Voyager 1 became the first human - made target to venturebeyondour solar organization . The space probe is no longer alone in that distinction . Today — November 4 , 2019 — researchers at the University of Iowa corroborate that Voyager 2 has entered interstellar space after commence its journeying from Earth 42 years ago .
Voyager 2 hasmade historymany times since its 1977 launch . It ’s been toSaturnand Jupiter , and it stay only ballistic capsule that has exploredUranus and Neptune . After deplete the outer compass of our solar organization , Voyager 2 ’s next destination became the orphic regions of distance that consist beyond it .
A newfangled field from the University of Iowa published in the journalNature Astronomyconfirms that Voyager 2 leave the realm of our sun on November 5 , 2018 . The percentage point where our solar organisation ends and interstellar space begins may seem hard to limit , but the Voyager trade have provide scientist with a clear answer .
Rather than bit by bit transitioning from one type of quad to another , our solar system has a forcible bounds . The Dominicus gives off a " solar wind " that ’s live and low in plasma . This solar wind make a bubble , call up the heliosphere , that stretch out billions of miles from the sun . On the other side of this house of cards , space is much cooler and more dense in plasma . There ’s a clear point where the bubble ends , like what you ’d see with a house of cards of oil in a glass of urine .
About a yr ago , a plasm - wave legal document aboard Voyager 2 immortalise a striking start in plasm concentration , indicating that it had crossed over from the heliosphere into interstellar blank space . It made the modulation about 11.1 billion sea mile from the sun , which is roughly the same distance Voyager 1 clocked when it entered interstellar blank from adifferent pointin the solar system .
" It entail that the heliosphere is symmetric , at least at the two breaker point where the Voyager spacecraft get across , " subject field atomic number 27 - writer Bill Kurth said in a news freeing . " That says that these two points on the surface are almost at the same distance . "
Co - source Don Gurnett added , " There ’s almost a globose front to this . It ’s like a blunt bullet train . "
Now that both voyager are in the part of outer space that lie between the stars , they will orb the coltsfoot for 5 billion age or longer . scientist predict they will outlastEarth .
