Topic: Interstellar Space

NASA’s Voyager 1 Spacecraft enters New Region of our Solar System on it’s way to Interstellar Space

December 5, 2012 |

Written by Jia-Rui C. Cook
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region at the far reaches of our solar system that scientists feel is the final area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space.

Scientists refer to this new region as a magnetic highway for charged particles because our sun’s magnetic field lines are connected to interstellar magnetic field lines.

This artist’s concept shows plasma flows around NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft as it approaches interstellar space. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL)

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NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft launched 35 years ago still going strong as it hurtles towards Interstellar Space

August 21, 2012 |

Written by Jia-Rui Cook
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Thirty-five years ago today, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, the first Voyager spacecraft to launch, departed on a journey that would make it the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune and the longest-operating NASA spacecraft ever.

Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, that launched 16 days later on September 5th, 1977, are still going strong, hurtling away from our sun. Mission managers are eagerly anticipating the day when they break on through to the other side – the space between stars.

Voyager 2 was launched on August 20th, 1977, from the NASA Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida, propelled into space on a Titan/Centaur rocket. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL)

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NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft experiences Fast Changes as it nears our Solar System’s Edge

August 6, 2012 |

Written by Jia-Rui Cook
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space have changed faster than at any other time in the last seven years, according to new data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.

For the last seven years, Voyager 1 has been exploring the outer layer of the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself. In one day, on July 28th, data from Voyager 1′s cosmic ray instrument showed the level of high-energy cosmic rays originating from outside our solar system jumped by five percent.

This artist’s concept shows NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath, the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our sun. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Voyager 1 probe nears the edge of the Solar System and the Final Frontier

June 23, 2012 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – For nearly 35 years, NASA’s Voyager 1 probe has been hurtling toward the edge of the solar system, flying through the dark void on a mission unlike anything attempted before.  One day, mission controllers hope, Voyager 1 will leave the solar system behind and enter the realm of the stars—interstellar space.

That day may be upon us.

“The latest data from Voyager 1 indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing quickly,” says Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. This is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system’s final frontier.”

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NASA’s Voyager 1 Spacecraft sends back data from the edge of our Solar System

June 17, 2012 |

Written by DC Agle
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that the venerable deep-space explorer has encountered a region in space where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system has markedly increased.

Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion – that humanity’s first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system.

This artist’s concept shows NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath, the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our sun. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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Alien Matter in the Solar System: A Galactic Mismatch

February 11, 2012 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Greenbelt, MD – This just in:  The Solar System is different from the space just outside it.

Researchers announced the finding at a press conference on January 31st, 2012. It’s based on data from NASA’s IBEX spacecraft, which is able to sample material flowing into the solar system from interstellar space.

“We’ve detected alien matter that came into our solar system from other parts of the galaxy–and, chemically speaking, it’s not exactly like what we find here at home.” says David McComas the principal investigator for IBEX at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.

Roughly the size of a card table, the Interstellar Boundary Explorer is the latest in NASA’s series of low-cost, rapidly developed Small Explorers spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab)

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NASA’s Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge

December 9, 2011 |

Written Jia-Rui C. Cook and Alan Buis
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space. Data obtained from Voyager over the last year reveal this new region to be a kind of cosmic purgatory. In it, the wind of charged particles streaming out from our sun has calmed, our solar system’s magnetic field is piled up, and higher-energy particles from inside our solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space.

“Voyager tells us now that we’re in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back. We shouldn’t have long to wait to find out what the space between stars is really like.”

Artist concept of Voyager 1 encountering a stagnation region. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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Voyager 2 to Switch to Backup Thruster Set

November 6, 2011 |

Voyager Mission Status Report

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Deep Space Network personnel sent commands to the Voyager 2 spacecraft November 4th to switch to the backup set of thrusters that controls the roll of the spacecraft. Confirmation was received today that the spacecraft accepted the commands. The change will allow the 34-year-old spacecraft to reduce the amount of power it requires to operate and use previously unused thrusters as it continues its journey toward interstellar space, beyond our solar system.

Voyagers in the Heliosheath

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