NASA announced on Monday that Voyager 1 has entered a region of our solar system that we didn't know existed. This region is unique due to the interaction of magnetic fields there. Since stars' cores are tremendous masses of incredibly hot, spinning metal, they produce powerful magnetic fields that extend billions and even trillions of miles. This newly discovered layer on the outskirts of our solar system is made by the Sun's magnetic field connecting to the larger, interstellar magnetic field. Charged particles that hit this region get accelerated, so particles from our solar system are sent out, and particles from the galaxy at large are able to enter.
It's taken 35 years for Voyagers 1 and 2 to get this far, and it looks as though they'll break out of the Sun's influence relatively soon. NASA is not yet sure, though, whether that will be a matter of months or years. The Voyager probes have been running longer than any other spacecraft NASA has launched and will be the first man-made objects to leave the solar system. The completely unanticipated discovery of this "magnetic highway" is an exciting reminder that we can't be sure what's out there in the universe until we go and see it. Who knows what discoveries Voyager 1 will have for us when it finally leaves the heliosphere behind?
Read more here.
No comments:
Post a Comment