Voyager 1 Officially Exits Our Solar System

An anonymous reader writes "A new study released today (abstract) indicates that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has become the first man-made object to exit our solar system. Instrumentation data sent back to NASA indicate the historic event likely occurred on August 25, 2012, evidenced by drastic changes in radiation levels as the craft ventured past the heliopause. What remains to be seen, however, is whether Voyager 1 has actually made it to true interstellar space, or whether it has entered a separate, undefined region beyond our solar system. Either way, the achievement is truly monumental. 'It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that. We're in a new region,' said Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. 'And everything we're measuring is different and exciting.'" Update: 03/20 20:44 GMT by S : Reader skade88 points out that the JPL Voyager team is not so sure: "It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called 'the magnetic highway' where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed." So we'll probably be hearing about this again in a couple years.

Comments

Re:Must be Wednesday

[bobbied]

Looks like two orders of magnitude change in measurements (100 times). At least that's what the article I found here says: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/20/voyager-1-leaves-solar-system/?intcmp=features

Re:What's the definition of "leaving the system"?

[newcastlejon]

I'm no astronomer, but I think what you call the "sphere of influence" is properly termed the "Hill sphere". It does raise an interesting question all the same: which star will be the next one that Voyager ends up being attracted to?

Re:Take care out there Voyager

[cusco]

Well, the management team formed by the former Pentagon bean-counter that Shrub foisted on NASA. IMOHO it's a mistake to think of NASA as the 'leadership' imposed by the pols in DC, I always envision the organization as being the engineers, programmers, and astronauts who do the actual work there.