With four remaining powered instruments on Voyager 1 and five remaining powered instruments on Voyager 2, the two spacecraft continue to collect science data comparing their two distinct locations at the far reaches of the solar system. As shown in this diagram, Voyager 1 traveled through the compressed “nose” of the termination shock and Voyager 2 is expected to travel through the flank of the termination shock. (One AU, or astronomical unit, is equal to 150 kilometers (93 million miles), the distance between Earth and the Sun.) That’s about 10 AU closer to the Sun than where Voyager 1 crossed the shock in the north. For example, Voyager 2 crossed the termination shock at a distance of about 83.7 AU in the southern hemisphere. As the Voyagers continue their journey, scientists hope to learn more about the location and properties of the heliopause.įrom their unique vantage points – Voyager 1 in the northern hemisphere and Voyager 2 in the southern hemisphere – the spacecraft have already detected differences and asymmetries in the solar wind termination shock, where the wind abruptly slows as it approaches the heliopause. Though we’ve learned a lot about the heliopause thanks to the Voyager spacecraft, its thickness and variation are still key unanswered questions in space physics.
Just like the water in the sink, the solar wind at the heliopause changes direction and flows back into the heliosphere. The outer edge of the thick ring of water at the bottom of the sink represents the heliopause. The termination shock is the point at which the speed of the solar wind (water) drops abruptly as it begins to be influenced by interstellar wind. In this video, the water traveling radially away from where the faucet stream impacts the sink represents the solar wind. Our planetary system lies inside the bubble of the heliosphere, bordered by the heliopause and surrounded by interstellar space.Īny flat-bottom sink can provide a visual analogy of these solar system components. The heliopause is the outermost boundary of the solar wind, a stream of electrically charged atoms, composed primarily of ionized hydrogen, that stream outward from the Sun. (Note that the heliosphere doesn’t actually look like a sphere when it travels through space it’s more of a blunt sphere with a tail.) The outer edge of the heliosphere, before interstellar space, is a boundary region called the heliopause. Most of the Sun’s influence is contained within the heliosphere, a bubble created by the Sun and limited by forces in interstellar space. The beginning of interstellar space is where the constant flow of material from the Sun and its magnetic field stop influencing the surroundings. They are now more than 10 billion miles from Earth, exploring the boundary region between our planetary system and what’s called interstellar space. After completing their “ grand tour” of the outer planets, the Voyagers continued on an extended mission to the outer solar system.
In addition to shaping our understanding of the outer planets, the Voyager spacecraft are helping us learn more about the space beyond the planets – the outer region of our solar system. See a gallery of images that Voyager took on the Voyager website. These images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (clockwise from top) were taken by Voyager 1 and 2 as the spacecraft journeyed through the solar system.
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