Voyager 2's Messages Revealing Findings About Interstellar Space

NASA's Voyager 2, the second spacecraft in history that has reached interstellar space, is revealing findings about the "cosmic shoreline," or the place where the environment created by the sun ends and interstellar space begins, according to research papers published Monday. 

"The Voyager probes are showing us how our sun interacts with the stuff that fills most of the space between stars in the Milky Way galaxy," said Ed Stone, the project scientist for Voyager and a Caltech professor of physics, reports USA Today. 

Voyager 2, one year ago Tuesday, became the second spacecraft in history to reach interstellar space, described as the area between the stars. 

According to the studies released Monday, the spacecraft has left the heliosphere, or the bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the sun, and is well beyond Pluto's orbit. 

"In a historical sense, the old idea that the solar wind will just be gradually whittled away as you go further into interstellar space is simply not true," said the University of Iowa's Don Gurnett, corresponding author on one of the studies. "We show with Voyager 2 – and previously with Voyager 1 – that there's a distinct boundary out there."

Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 slightly ahead of its twin, Voyager 1. It's been traveling through space for 42 years. 

Stone said scientists didn't know that a spacecraft could live long enough to leave the heliosphere and enter interstellar space. 

"We had no good quantitative idea of how big this bubble is," he commented. 

NASA said the Voyagers still remain in the solar system, even though they've left the sun's bubble. It is believed that the solar system reaches the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, and it would take about 30,000 years for the Voyagers to travel that far. 

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