Voyager 2 leaves the solar system
The Voyager 2 probe has reached interstellar space outside of the Sun’s influence— the second man-made object to do so after Voyager 1.
New research from the University of Iowa has indicated that the Voyager 2 spacecraft has reached the interstellar medium (ISM )— the region of space between solar systems in a galaxy. As such, it has moved out of the boundary reached by solar winds streaming out from the Sun and therefore crossed the boundary of the solar system.
This means Voyager 2 has become the second man-made object to move beyond the influence of our Sun, joining Voyager 1 — which crossed the same boundary in 2012.
Dan Gurnett, professor emeritus in the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy and an author of the study published in the journal Nature Astronomy — and his colleagues confirm that Voyager 2 will cross into the ISM on November 5th.
The crossing of this barrier is indicated by a definitive rise in plasma density detected by a plasma-wave instrument on the craft.
