Humankind has been exploring the universe for the last decade.
The boundary between the sun's influence and the interstellar medium was crossed on August 25, 2012 by NASA's Voyager 1 spaceship. Now, still going and still sending back data, the twin ships are still conducting ground-breaking science.
The purpose of the first and second Voyagers was to explore Jupiter andSaturn. The solar system was visited by both Voyager 2 and 1 but the first one prioritized the giant moon Titan. After the flyby of Neptune in 1989, the interstellar mission was created.
Merav Opher, an astronomer at Boston University who runs a center called SHIELD, told Space.com that nobody expected the Voyagers to leave the interstellar medium. They had a five-year lifetime that was extended for another five years, but nobody thought they'd leave the solar system.
Our understanding of life on Earth could be affected by the discoveries made about the heliosphere.
The images of our solar system are amazing.
When it was 122AU away from the sun, it was the first human-made object to explore the space between the stars. The average distance between Earth and the sun is about 93 million miles.
The solar wind, a stream of charged particles from the sun, dominates the heliosphere and scientists know for certain that the probes have crossed from there.
The density was 10 times larger than what we found in the solar wind. The first one was out.
The same jump in particle density was detected by the instruments when they were used.
The heliopause, a "twilight zone" between the bubble-like heliosphere and the space between it and the stars, had unexpected properties. They sent back data on peaks and troughs during a couple of months after crossing through.
Opher said that the heliopause is more complex than they thought. It is a boundary that allows communication. The discovery of particles in and out of the heliosphere was made from magnetic field data from the first two ships.
Scientists were confused by the data on the heliopause. It should have been possible for the magnetic field from the sun to meet the magnetic field from the galaxy. Magnetic field direction changes were not detected by either of the two ships.
There was no change in angle. The magnetic field was almost solar-like. Opher and her team have a theory about the magnetic field in the heliopause that connects the solar field with the outside world. She said that it's probably a region where the magnetic field connects.
There is an open question as to why the heliopause appears to be warped by solar activity.
The 40AU beyond the heliopause allows scientists to understand what the interstellar medium is really like. It's more influenced by the heliosphere than was thought. Opher said that the interstellar medium is influenced by the sun. It's different than we expected and we don't know what's happening.
The data shows how the sun's magnetic field affects the behavior of Cosmic rays. Opher said they thought they'd see Cosmic rays coming from all directions.
There is a correlation between the data and the sun's magnetic field that is far out into the ether. Scientists are rethinking how rays from the stars can reach the Earth.
The silent ambassadors will eventually stop speaking as they enter the pristine interstellar medium. The probes will pick up a matter-mix from other stars as the sun's influence fades.
It's not possible to detect the influence of the next star in the space craft. There are two stars in the constellation of Camelopardalis and one in the constellation of Andromeda.
The last time scientists hear from the two spaceships is likely to be in the 2030s, according to mission personnel.
The next study of the heliosphere that will interest scientists is the one that imaged Pluto. The power supply will not last past the late 17th century. Interstellar probe is a decades long mission to study the heliosphere.
Opher thinks the heliosphere has shielded life on Earth from hazardous cosmic rays and dust because of the in-situ data. The solar system's position in the outer space has been important for fostering life.
"If we are going to try to find life on other planets, we have to find our own," Opher stated. It was the other way around.
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