A study by Johns
Hopkins University of Maryland (USA) completed that the probe Voyager 1,
launched on September 5, 1977, is as close to the heliopause (the boundary
where the solar wind disappears and begins the interstellar medium ) as
scientists believed.
Voyager 1 is now in the
heliosheath, the region anterior to the heliopause, where the solar wind slows
and begins to show the effects of the interstellar medium.
In this transition
zone is supposed that the solar plasma deviates from its southern another
radial trajectory.
But since 2011, the
probe Voyager 1 was reoriented periodically to measure the north-south flow,
and the results show no significant meridional wind. New data suggest that,
contrary to what was thought, the probe is not about to cross the frontier of
the solar system.
The research, led by
Robert Decker and published in Nature, suggests that our knowledge of the
limits of the solar system should be reconsidered, and also notes that it may
be that a new theoretical formulation of the solar wind interaction with the
interstellar medium.
35 years of history
Voyager 1 is now nearly
120 astronomical units from the Sun (an astronomical unit is the distance
between Earth and the Sun, about 150 million kilometers). The ship was launched
as part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission, along with Voyager 2, 35 years
ago.
Initially, the mission
of these two probes was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn, and after
several discoveries in these planets, the project was extended. Voyager 2 also
explored Uranus and Neptune, and then the two continued their journey to better
understand the boundaries of the solar system.
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