Voyager 2 - On The Edge

[JMCx4]

From: JPL-NASA, NEWS | NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Voyager 2 Illuminates Boundary of Interstellar Space

One year ago, on Nov. 5, 2018, NASA's Voyager 2 became only the second spacecraft in history to leave the heliosphere - the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by our Sun. At a distance of about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from Earth - well beyond the orbit of Pluto - Voyager 2 had entered interstellar space, or the region between stars. Today, five new research papers in the journal Nature Astronomy describe what scientists observed during and since Voyager 2's historic crossing.

Each paper details the findings from one of Voyager 2's five operating science instruments: a magnetic field sensor, two instruments to detect energetic particles in different energy ranges and two instruments for studying plasma (a gas composed of charged particles). Taken together, the findings help paint a picture of this cosmic shoreline, where the environment created by our Sun ends and the vast ocean of interstellar space begins. ...

Before Voyager 1 reached the edge of the heliosphere in 2012, scientists didn't know exactly how far this boundary was from the Sun. The two probes exited the heliosphere at different locations and also at different times in the constantly repeating, approximately 11-year solar cycle, over the course of which the Sun goes through a period of high and low activity. Scientists expected that the edge of the heliosphere, called the heliopause, can move as the Sun's activity changes, sort of like a lung expanding and contracting with breath. This was consistent with the fact that the two probes encountered the heliopause at different distances from the Sun.

The new papers now confirm that Voyager 2 is not yet in undisturbed interstellar space: Like its twin, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 appears to be in a perturbed transitional region just beyond the heliosphere. ...


Read more at: News | Voyager 2 Illuminates Boundary of Interstellar Space

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[jfont]

so interesting...

and it hasn't even approached the ort cloud.

 

[LadyStanley]

NASA regains contact with Voyager 2 after it went dark for two weeks

NASA "shouted" a command to the spacecraft across over 12.3 billion miles of space using the Deep Space Network, telling it to turn its antenna back to Earth.

www.engadget.com

NASA reestablished connection with Voyager 2 by SHOUTING to readjust transmitter toward earth.

 

[JMCx4]

... NASA reestablished connection with Voyager 2 by SHOUTING to readjust transmitter toward earth.

My Mom coulda done that for them.