Voyager 2 Finds Solar System is bent

Gunslinger

Voyager 2 discovers solar system is bent By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

LOS ANGELES - New observations from NASA's long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft show the solar system is asymmetrical, likely from disturbances in the interstellar magnetic field, scientists reported Monday. The discovery came after the 30-year-old unmanned probe sailed near the edge of the solar system this past summer following its twin, Voyager 1, which reached that part of space in 2004.

Researchers have long suspected the solar system was bent, but never had direct evidence until now, said Voyager mission scientist Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology.

Voyager 2 crossed a barrier in the solar system known as the termination shock in August, some 10 billion miles from the site where Voyager 1 passed through. The termination shock is the region where charged particles from the sun collide with other particles and a magnetic field in interstellar gas and abruptly slow down.

Voyager 2 passed the termination shock five times and determined the boundary in the southern hemisphere was about a billion miles closer to the sun than the spot where Voyager 1 crossed in the northern hemisphere, Stone said at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Scientists believe the unevenness is caused by the interstellar magnetic field that is pitched at an angle to the plane of the Milky Way.

"The magnetic field is disturbing an otherwise spherical surface," Stone said.

Although Voyager 2 was the second probe to zip past the termination shock, scientists were nonetheless excited about the milestone. Unlike its twin, Voyager 2 had a working instrument that made the first direct measurements of the speed and temperature of the solar wind.

The nuclear-powered Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977, are hurtling toward an uncharted region of space where the sun's influence wanes.

Voyager 1, the most distant of any manmade object, is traveling at 10 miles a second with its twin trailing close behind.

It will take about a decade before the probes reach the heliopause, marking the beginning of interstellar space and the end of our solar system.

This last paragraph intrigues me. What mysteries will be revealed at this point? Funny how "advanced" modern man finds himself when we haven't even began to unlock the mysteries hidden in our oceans, much less space. We are still literal freshmen at best in the University of Knowledge.

James

Yeah, when it leaves the outer boundary of the solar system, God only knows what its going to come across. Wont be any planets or anything of that magnitude because there's no gravitation pull that far out for it to orbit, but there could be things that are completely unknown to mankind. We cant see that far out of the system because there is no sunlight. Just because it looks like dead space doesn't mean it is.

Also, our probes being sent out like that are slowing down for unknown reasons. We may eventually find out why.

Re: Voyager 2 Finds Solar System is bent

Re: Voyager 2 Finds Solar System is bent

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