35 years later, Voyager nears our solar system's boundary

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  1. truebluefan

    truebluefan Administrator Staff Member Administrator

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    Scientists believe that it is only a matter of time before Voyager 1 leaves the region around our sun known as the heliosphere and enters interstellar space.

    It took 35 years but Voyager 1 is about to cross the boundary from our solar system into interstellar space.

    New data revealed today in the journal Science suggest that the craft is now more than 11 billion miles from the sun.

    The big moment is still in the offing -- there have been previous false reports -- but this time scientists believe that it is only a matter of time before the spacecraft leaves the region around our sun known as the heliosphere and enters interstellar space. Three papers described the elevated presence of charged particles from outside the heliosphere as well as the absence of any charged particles from inside the heliosphere.

    It's unclear how much farther the probe still needs to travel before it departs into interstellar space, with estimates ranging from months to years. It has a long trek to go given that the heliosphere is believed to be at least 8 billion miles beyond our solar system, according to NASA.

    Read more http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-5...ter-voyager-nears-our-solar-systems-boundary/
     

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