Voyager 2 Makes An Unexpectedly Clean Break From The Solar System

Thursday, November 7, 2019
by Jonathan O'Callaghan

Scientific American, November 4, 2019
Jonathan O’Callaghan

The first scientific results from the spacecraft’s exit into interstellar space have been published, revealing a simpler departure than its predecessor

Astronomers have released the first results from the late 2018 passage of NASA’s Voyager 2 probe into interstellar space, revealing some notable differences to the first crossing made by its sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, in 2012. The data shows that although Voyager 1’s departure was fairly “messy,” the exit of Voyager 2 was much cleaner as it left our sun’s influence on its journey into the galaxy.

Continue reading: https://www.scientificamerican.com/…/voyager-2-makes-an-un…/

Image: Illustration shows the positions of NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes outside the heliosphere, the region surrounding our star, beyond which interstellar space begins. Credit: NASA and JPL-Caltech
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See also MIT News, December 10, 2018
3 Questions: MIT goes interstellar with Voyager 2

MIT Kavli’s John Richardson describes MIT’s role in the historic passing of the Voyager 2 craft past the heliopause and into the interstellar medium.

http://news.mit.edu/…/3q-mit-going-interstellar-voyager-pla…