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.
In a series of papers published in the journal Nature Astronomy , five separate teams of scientists analyzed the data from Voyager 2 to compare its crossing with that of Voyager 1. Although it took Voyager 1 about 28 days to cross the heliopause after leaving the sun’s bubble of influence, known as the heliosphere, it took Voyager 2 less than a day to do so. “On Voyager 1 we found that even before we left the heliosphere we had two episodes where we were connected to the ‘outside,’” says Voyager project scientist Ed Stone, lead author on one of the papers. “On Voyager 2 it was just the opposite. We were outside, but we continued to see particles leaking from the inside.”
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NASA probe provides insight on solar system's border with interstellar space -
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The journey of NASA’s dauntless Voyager 2 spacecraft through our solar system’s farthest reaches has given scientists new insight into a poorly understood distant frontier: the unexpectedly distinct boundary marking where the sun’s energetic influence ends and interstellar space begins.
The U.S. space agency previously announced that Voyager 2, the second human-made object ever to depart the solar system following its twin Voyager 1, had zipped into interstellar space on Nov. 5, 2018 at a point more than 11 billion miles (17.7 billion km) from the sun. Several research papers published on Monday provided scientific details of that crossing.
Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977, designed for five-year missions. Voyager 1 left the solar system at a different location in 2012. Both are now traversing the Milky Way galaxy’s interstellar medium, a chillier region filling the vast expanses between the galaxy’s stars and planetary systems.
What's Up: Skywatching Tips from NASA – NASA Solar System Exploration
On November 11 we're in for a rare treat, as the innermost planet, Mercury, passes directly in front of the Sun for a few hours.
This event is called a transit, and for Mercury they happen only about 13 times in a century. (Transits of Venus are even more rare.)
The event will last about five and a half hours, during which Mercury's path will take it right across the middle of the Sun's disk. For observers in the Eastern U.S., the transit begins after sunrise, meaning you'll be able to view the entire thing. For the central and western U.S., the transit begins before sunrise, but there's enough time left as the Sun climbs up the sky for you to catch a glimpse before Mercury makes its exit.
Now remember, you should never look directly at the Sun without proper protection, as it can permanently damage your eyes. If you have a pair eclipse shades, those are okay for viewing the Sun, but Mercury is so small in comparison that it can be next to impossible to see a transit without magnification.
A bonanza of data from the second Voyager to reach the Solar System's edge | Ars Technica
People probably suspect that having no data is the worst frustration for scientists. In reality, having just a single source of data can be worse, since you don't know how typical that lone example might be. But the worst situation is to have two sources of data that don't entirely agree, leaving you with the challenge of trying to determine what causes the differences.
That situation is where the scientists who work with data from NASA's Voyager probes find themselves in the wake of Voyager 2 reaching interstellar space last year, making it the second spacecraft we've built that has made it there. Now, in a series of five papers, researchers have attempted to compare or contrast the data from the two Voyagers and try to make sense of the contradictions, knowing that we've got nothing built that's going to get new data from that distance any time soon.
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Voyager 2 sends update from beyond the solar system after 42 year mission
A Nasa probe has sent back its first data from beyond the solar system after an incredible 42-year journey.
Voyager 2 blasted off in 1977 and left the heliosphere, the so-called "solar bubble" that envelops Earth and our neighbouring planets, last year.
It set off a month before its twin, Voyager 1 which made quicker time and became the first man-made object to leave the solar system in 2012.
B ut one of the instruments on Voyager 1 was broken, and Voyager 2 was able to send back an even more detailed treasure trove of data from 11 billion miles away.
It found that the heliopause - the barrier where the solar and interstellar winds meet - was much more defined than scientists anticipated.
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As it left the solar system Voyager 2 also recorded particles leaking out into interstellar space, whereas Voyager 1 had recorded elements of the interstellar wind coming the other way.
OffWorld's Smart Robots Could Swarm Solar System to Help Astronauts and Settlers | Space
WASHINGTON — Future lunar explorers could have smart robots ready to help them thanks to OffWorld, a company that plans a fleet of industrial machines for destinations all over the solar system.
The California-based company already has some undisclosed Fortune 500 companies paying it to deploy robots on Earth for applications such as mining. And while the tech is all early stage, OffWorld said it plans to go a lot further.
While it's still too early to tell when the robots would leave our planet, OffWorld CEO Jim Keravala told Space.com at the International Astronautical Congress that he would be pleased if future robotic generations could assist NASA's astronauts when they land on the surface of the moon, a mission scheduled for 2024.
Related: Moon VIPER: NASA Wants to Send a Water-Sniffing Rover to the Lunar South Pole in 2022
NASA Voyager 2 probe finds extra layer outside our solar system - Insider
NASA's Voyager 2 probe exited our solar system nearly a year ago, becoming the second spacecraft to ever enter interstellar space.
It followed six years behind its sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, which reached the limits of the solar system in 2012. But a plasma-measuring instrument on Voyager 1 had been damaged, so that probe could not gather crucial data about the transition from our solar system into interstellar space.
Voyager 2, which left the solar system with its instruments intact, completed the set of data. Scientists shared their findings for the first time on Monday, via five papers published in the journal Nature Astronomy .
The analyses indicate that there are mysterious extra layers between our solar system's bubble and interstellar space. Voyager 2 detected winds — flows of charged gas particles that come from the sun — leaking from the solar system. Just beyond the solar system's edge, these solar winds interact with interstellar winds: gas, dust, and charged particles flowing through space from supernova explosions millions of years ago.
Nasa Voyager 2 spacecraft that was shot into interstellar space gives first findings after
Nasa's pioneering craft has been travelling through the universe after it was launched in August 1977 from Cape Canaveral, 15 days before its twin Voyager 1. Since then it has been moving away from Earth, and almost exactly a year ago it passed out of the sun's protective bubble and into interstellar space.
When it did, it became only the second man-made object to travel outside the limits of our sun's influence and into the "interstellar medium". Its sibling Voyager 1 did so six years earlier, because it is on a different trajectory and moving faster.
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Scientists have now revealed what they learnt from that mission out into the furthest reaches of our cosmic neighbourhood.
In a series of papers published in the Nature Astronomy , researchers confirmed the spacecraft's journey into the "space between the stars" by noting a "definitive jump" in the density of the plasma – made up of charged particles and gas – in interstellar space.
Happening on Twitter
Astronomers have released the first results from the late 2018 passage of NASA's Voyager 2 probe into interstellar… https://t.co/9F9tCHfN0x sciam (from New York City) Mon Nov 04 16:31:31 +0000 2019
The first science results from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft are in! They reveal that the probe's exit to interstell… https://t.co/oOXxgkbq9j Astro_Jonny (from London, UK) Mon Nov 04 16:01:13 +0000 2019
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