Archiv: Voyager 1 (spacecraft)


13.11.2025 - 14:00 [ Dagens.com ]

NASA confirms Voyager spacecraft has encountered a “wall of fire” at the edge of the Solar System

(November 6, 2025)

According to NASA, Voyager 1 has now encountered what researchers describe as a “wall of fire,” a zone where temperatures reach between 30,000 and 50,000 kelvin — roughly 30,000 degrees Celsius. The finding was made as part of ongoing efforts to understand the boundary separating our Solar System from interstellar space.

(…)

“An observation made by Voyager 2 confirms a surprising result from Voyager 1: the magnetic field in the region just beyond the heliopause is parallel to the magnetic field inside the heliosphere,” NASA noted. With data from both spacecraft, scientists can now confirm that this alignment is not a coincidence but a defining characteristic of the boundary region.

13.11.2025 - 13:38 [ NASA / Youtube ]

Voyager 1 Trajectory through the Solar System

628,218 views Aug 31, 2017
This visualization tracks the trajectory of the Voyager 1 spacecraft through the solar system. Launched on September 5, 1977, it was one of two spacecraft sent to visit the giant planets of the outer solar system. Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn before being directed out of the solar system.

To fit the 40 year history of the mission into a short visualization, the pacing of time accelerates through most of the movie, starting at about 5 days per second at the beginning and speeding up to about 11 months per second after the planet flybys are past.

The termination shock and heliopause are the ‚boundaries‘ created when the plasma between the stars interacts with the plasma flowing outward from the Sun.

13.11.2025 - 13:31 [ LeRavi.org ]

NASA’s Voyager 1 set to become first human-made object to reach a full light-day distance from Earth in 2026

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 has been cruising through space for nearly 47 years, traveling a mind-boggling distance of almost 16 billion miles from Earth. This journey has already broken records—it was the first spacecraft to cross the heliopause, the boundary where the Sun’s solar wind yields to interstellar space. Now, it is on course to reach a distance known as a light-day, meaning the distance that light travels in 24 hours.

Traveling at about 38,000 miles per hour, Voyager 1’s progress may seem slow compared to light speed, but it reveals the vast scales of cosmic distance. Radio signals sent from the spacecraft take nearly 23 hours to reach Earth, which offers a glimpse into the immense challenges of communicating across these astronomical expanses.

02.03.2025 - 05:03 [ Jet Propulsion Laboratory / National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

The Voyagers Are Still Exploring 40 Years Later

(Oct. 12, 2024)

From their unique vantage points – Voyager 1 in the northern hemisphere and Voyager 2 in the southern hemisphere – the spacecraft have already detected differences and asymmetries in the solar wind termination shock, where the wind abruptly slows as it approaches the heliopause. For example, Voyager 2 crossed the termination shock at a distance of about 83.7 AU in the southern hemisphere. (One AU, or astronomical unit, is equal to 150 (million) kilometers (93 million miles), the distance between Earth and the Sun.) That’s about 10 AU closer to the Sun than where Voyager 1 crossed the shock in the north. As shown in this diagram, Voyager 1 traveled through the compressed “nose” of the termination shock and Voyager 2 is expected to travel through the flank of the termination shock.

02.03.2025 - 04:53 [ NASA / Youtube ]

Voyager 1 Trajectory through the Solar System

628,218 views Aug 31, 2017
This visualization tracks the trajectory of the Voyager 1 spacecraft through the solar system. Launched on September 5, 1977, it was one of two spacecraft sent to visit the giant planets of the outer solar system. Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn before being directed out of the solar system.

To fit the 40 year history of the mission into a short visualization, the pacing of time accelerates through most of the movie, starting at about 5 days per second at the beginning and speeding up to about 11 months per second after the planet flybys are past.

The termination shock and heliopause are the ‚boundaries‘ created when the plasma between the stars interacts with the plasma flowing outward from the Sun.

02.03.2025 - 04:41 [ Wired.me ]

Our planet is in a space balloon, literally

(June 16, 2024)

But only two human-made objects have crossed the boundary of the solar system and entered interstellar space.

In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, equipped with tools to measure the magnetic fields and the particles it is directly passing through. After traveling for over three decades in space, they finally exited the outer layer of the heliosphere—heliopause in 2012 and 2018 respectively. They discovered that cosmic rays are about three times more intense outside the heliopause than deep inside the heliosphere.

14.06.2023 - 13:08 [ NASA New Horizons / Twitter ]

#OTD in 2019, @NASA‘s #NewHorizons flew by Arrokoth, the farthest object ever explored by spacecraft. Arrokoth is about about 50 AU, or 4 billion miles from the Sun. New Horizons is ~56 AU from Earth and will join Voyagers 1 & 2 in interstellar space in the 2040s.

14.06.2023 - 12:59 [ Youtube ]

5 Spacecraft Are Leaving The Solar System. What Did They See In Their Journey?

Pioneer 10: Pioneer 10 was launched in 1972 to explore the planets of the solar system. It achieved the first flyby of Mars, the first trip through the asteroid belt, and Jupiter‘s first flyby. It was the first time NASA had used nuclear energy to power its spacecraft. So, after Pioneer 10 passed Jupiter in 1973, it still had ample energy to keep going. Initially planned for 21 months, it continued to communicate with Earth for a total of 30 years.

14.06.2023 - 12:50 [ Space.com ]

What Spacecraft Will Enter Interstellar Space Next?

(January 30, 2019)

This milestone — reaching interstellar space — can be considered leaving the solar system by a certain definition. Let‘s be clear about what that entails. In 1990, the New York Times reported that Pioneer was reported to leave the solar system when it flew past Neptune‘s orbit. That‘s not what Voyager 2‘s scientists used to make their determination, however. Instead, the more recent measurements consider the crossing of the sun‘s heliopause, the theoretical boundary to its heliosphere, to be the determining factor for entering interstellar space. The heliosphere is a bubble of charged particles created by and flowing past the sun. Scientists use it to mark where interstellar space begins.

14.06.2023 - 12:47 [ ORF.at ]

Raumsonde „Pioneer 10“ 40 Jahre aus Sonnensystem heraus

Am 13. Juni 1983 durchflog „Pioneer 10“ die Umlaufbahn des Neptun und wurde so laut NASA zum ersten menschengemachten Raumschiff, das am weitestentfernten bekannten Planeten unseres Sonnensystems vorbeiflog. Neptun ist im Mittel etwa 4,5 Milliarden Kilometer von der Sonne entfernt.

Mit „Pioneer 11“ und den beiden „Voyager“-Sonden folgten später ähnliche Missionen. „Voyager 1“ überholte „Pioneer 10“ schließlich als am weitesten von der Erde entferntes menschengemachtes Objekt. Zum bisher letzten Mal schickte „Pioneer 10“ im Jänner 2003 Daten, ein Kontaktversuch im März 2006 scheiterte.

02.01.2020 - 17:18 [ ORF.at ]

„Magnetische Wand“ im interstellaren Raum

(04.11.2019)

„Voyager 2“ hat die Grenze der Heliosphäre in nur einem Tag passiert, was einen scharfen Übergang zum lokalen interstellaren Medium bedeutet. „Die alte, historische Vorstellung, dass der Sonnenwind sich einfach allmählich reduziert, je weiter man in den interstellaren Raum vordringt, trifft nicht zu“, erläuterte „Voyager“-Forscher Don Gurnett von der Universität von Iowa, Ko-Autor einer der Analysen. „Wir haben mit ‚Voyager 2‘ und vorher mit ‚Voyager 1 gezeigt, dass es dort draußen eine ausgeprägte Grenze gibt.“

04.11.2019 - 19:38 [ ScienceNews.org ]

Voyager 2 reveals the dynamic, complex nature of the solar system’s edge

Despite encountering the heliopause at different times and locations — the two spacecraft are farther from each other than each are from the sun — some things looked similar. The magnetic field looked pretty much the same on the inside and the outside of the boundary: Somehow, the sun’s magnetic field lines up nearly perfectly with the local galactic field, contrary to expectations. “We could dismiss that as coincidence in one case, but we can’t do that twice,” study coauthor Leonard Burlaga, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in the news conference.

04.11.2019 - 19:30 [ Nature ]

Energetic charged particle measurements from Voyager 2 at the heliopause and beyond

Here, we report measurements of energetic (>28 keV) charged particles on V2 from the interface region between the heliosheath, dominated by heated solar wind plasma, and the VLISM, expected to contain cold non-solar plasma and the Galactic magnetic field. The number of particles of solar origin began a gradual decrease on 7 August 2018 (118.2 au), while those of Galactic origin (Galactic cosmic rays) increased ~20% in number over a period of a few weeks. An abrupt change occurred on 5 November when V2 was located at 119 au, with a decrease in the number of particles at energies of >28 keV and a corresponding increase in the number of Galactic cosmic rays of energy E > 213 MeV. T

04.11.2019 - 19:19 [ theGuardian.com ]

Nasa‘s Voyager 2 sends back its first signal from interstellar space

The shape depends, in a complex way, on the relative strengths of the magnetic fields inside and outside of the heliosphere, and the latest measurements are suggestive of a more spherical form.

04.11.2019 - 18:51 [ ORF ]

„Magnetische Wand“ im interstellaren Raum

Nach Jahrzehnten haben sie nun die Grenze der Heliosphäre passiert und sind damit auf dem Weg zu den Sternen.

01.11.2019 - 06:23 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Pressure Runs High at Edge of Solar System

(08.10.2019)

The scientists noted that the change in galactic cosmic rays wasn’t exactly identical at both spacecraft. At Voyager 2 inside the heliosheath, the number of cosmic rays decreased in all directions around the spacecraft. But at Voyager 1, outside the solar system, only the galactic cosmic rays that were traveling perpendicular to the magnetic field in the region decreased.

01.11.2019 - 06:17 [ Sciencealert.com ]

Voyager Mission Reveals Unexpected Pressure at The Edge of The Solar System

(10.10.2019)

There was one other surprise to come. The wave‘s passage lined up with an apparent drop in the intensity of high speed particles called cosmic rays. The fact each of the probes experienced this same thing in two different ways gives astrophysicists yet another mystery to solve.

„Trying to understand why the change in the cosmic rays is different inside and outside of the heliosheath remains an open question,“ says Rankin.

01.11.2019 - 06:03 [ EOS.org ]

What Inflates the Solar Bubble? Voyagers Count What’s Missing

(17.10.2019)

We’re all living in a bubble.

In fact, the Sun and the entire solar system exist in a bubble that separates us from interstellar space. But what keeps that bubble inflated? A recent paper found that scientists can account for only 82% of the pressure that steadies the solar bubble, or heliosphere, against pressure from galactic headwinds. The source of 18% of the pressure is still unknown.

20.11.2018 - 13:08 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Excitement Increases as Voyager 2 sees a decrease in Heliospheric Particles

(14.11.2018) In the following graph of the Low Energy Telescope data, right around the beginning of November, you’ll notice a pretty dramatic change: All of a sudden, the Voyager 2 counting rate of low-energy particles dropped, although it hasn’t yet dropped to nearly zero as it did when Voyager 1 entered interstellar space. Scientists will keep their eye on these graphs …

20.11.2018 - 13:05 [ NASA Sun & Space ‏/ Twitter ]

Excitement goes up ? as @NASAVoyager 2‘s count of heliospheric particles goes down These low-energy particles originate within the Sun’s bubble of magnetic influence — the heliosphere — and their count should drop to near-zero in interstellar space:

(17.11.2018)

08.10.2018 - 21:05 [ V3.co.uk ]

NASA‘s Voyager 2 probe detects increase in cosmic rays as it approaches the heliosphere

Cosmic rays are fast-moving particles that originate outside the solar system. Some of these cosmic rays are blocked by the heliosphere, so mission planners expect that Voyager 2 will measure an increase in the rate of cosmic rays as it approaches and crosses the boundary of the heliosphere.

08.10.2018 - 21:01 [ Outerplaces.com ]

NASA‘s Voyager 2 Probe Is About To Slip Beyond The Boundaries Of Our Solar System And Into Interstellar Space

Voyager 2 began it‘s journey away from Earth back in 1977 and is roughly 11 billion miles from home. In 2007 it entered the outermost layer of the heliosphere, and now based on data recorded by the probe‘s Cosmic Ray Subsystem instrument, NASA scientists say there‘s a good chance that it is about to reach the boundary (known as the heliopause) and join Voyager 1 in the history books as the second human-made object to go interstellar. Back in August, the cosmic rays hitting the probe increased by five percent.