NASA Voyager 1 Encounters New Region in Deep Space

Posted on December 3, 2012

NASA announced today that its Voyager 1 spacecraft has encountered a new region in deep space. NASA scientists believe this region is the final region Voyager 1 will encounter before reaching interstellar space. The image above shows Voyager 1 in a region where the Sun's southern wind is flowing northward due to pressure from the interstellar magnetic field.

NASA scientists are calling the region Voyager 1 is in the magnetic highway for charged particles. The magnetic field became stronger when Voyager entered the highway region, but the direction of the magnetic field lines did not change. The scientists estimate Voyager 1 will arrive in interstellar space in a few months to two years time.

Leonard Burlaga, a Voyager magnetometer team member based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md, said in a statement, "We are in a magnetic region unlike any we've been in before -- about 10 times more intense than before the termination shock -- but the magnetic field data show no indication we're in interstellar space. The magnetic field data turned out to be the key to pinpointing when we crossed the termination shock. And we expect these data will tell us when we first reach interstellar space."

dward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, says, "We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space. Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn't what we expected, but we've come to expect the unexpected from Voyager."

SPACE