Is Voyager 1 at the Solar System's edge?

Voyager 1's adventure has brought the spacecraft into new areas, previously unexpected. The U.S. space agency (NASA) spacecraft is now located in a region between the solar system and interstellar space.

Scientists initially suspect the Voyager 1 has reached the interstellar space on August 25, 2012 and became the first man-made object to leave the solar system. The theory was finally proved mistaken. The magnetic field which is experienced by the Voyager 1 was still in line like the Sun.

This artist's concept shows NASA's two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath, the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our sun, called the heliosphere. (Picture from: http://www.upi.com/)

If the spacecraft is actually being in the interstellar space, the scientists surmise necessarily change of the magnetic field direction. Leonard Burlaga, a Voyager scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre, revealed strong evidence that Voyager is still in the heliosheath (bubble of solar plasma that surrounds the solar system). 

Voyager, The Interstellar Mission. (Picture from: http://engtechmag.files.wordpress.com/)

Results of this analysis published in the Science journal, at the end of June 2013. "You can not exclude the existence of a coincidence really strange, but this is very strong evidence that we are still in the heliosheath," said Burlaga. 

Additional measurements on the information submitted by the Voyager 1 has given indication of the availability of the second peculiarity. Cosmic ray particles are not uniformly distributed around Voyager 1, as what is predicted to occur when the spacecraft is in the interstellar space. On the other hand, charged particles originating from distant supernova explosion oriented in a certain direction.

All measurement results that ordered the scientists to the conclusion that Voyager 1 is in a sort of magnetic border zone, a place where particles from outside the solar system and easily switch places, but still dominated by the Sun influence. "We are not able to explain why we can find the new territory," said Burlaga.

Unlike the Voyager 1, it twin brother, Voyager 2 is still in the solar system but on a different direction. Voyager 2 has not found the same phenomenon, or even never will. Voyager 1 moves faster, 17 kilometers per second, while Voyager 2 is only 15 kilometers per second. "Voyager 2 encounter what we predicted. Unlike the Voyager 1," said the Voyager's chief scientist, Ed Stone.

Voyager 1 may be in a strange place where the heliosheath and the interstellar space are connected. Voyager 1 is now about 18.5 billion kilometers from Earth. The scientists suspect the Voyager 1 is in the heliosheath decline, a further step before entering interstellar space. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | NASA | REUTERS | TJANDRA DEWI | KORAN TEMPO 4284]

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