NASA’s Voyager 2 Probe Reaches Interstellar Space, Still Beaming Data To Earth 41 Years After Its 1977 Launch

CBS News reports:

Eleven billion miles from Earth, NASA’s long-lived Voyager 2 probe, still beaming back data 41 years after its launch in 1977, has finally moved into interstellar space, scientists revealed Monday, joining its sister ship Voyager 1 in the vast, uncharted realm between the stars.

Voyager 2 moved past the boundary of the heliosphere, the protective bubble defined by the sun’s magnetic field and electrically charged solar wind, on Nov. 5. The transition was marked by a sharp decline in the number of charged particles detected by the spacecraft’s plasma science experiment, or PLS.

The instrument has not detected any signs of the solar wind since then. Three other instruments measured corresponding changes in cosmic rays, low-energy particles and magnetic field strength. At Voyager 2’s enormous distance from the sun, it took 16-and-a-half hours for the data to make its way back to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

It’s official! For the second time in history, a human-made object has reached the space between the stars. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe has exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. More at: https://t.co/NbGaGsWq4N pic.twitter.com/R1tYKXJTIN

— NASA360 (@NASA360) December 10, 2018

For the second time in history, a human-made object has reached the space between the stars. Now slightly more than 11 billion miles (18 bil. km) from Earth, Voyager 2 has now left the Sun’s protective bubble & is flying in interstellar space! pic.twitter.com/NRqPvt7fGE

— World and Science (@WorldAndScience) December 10, 2018

Voyager 2 has just entered interstellar space, NASA confirmshttps://t.co/XThTr4F5Av pic.twitter.com/peYJA4rNII

— IFLScience (@IFLScience) December 10, 2018