OREANDA-NEWS. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports that the Voyager 2 space probe entered interstellar space. It occurred more than 40 years after launch.

The publication of the agency says that the device left the heliosphere, “the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by our Sun.” This happened at a distance of 18 billion kilometers from Earth – well beyond the orbit of Pluto – on November 5, 2018. It took a year for a signal to reach Earth.

On November 4, five articles were published in the Nature Astronomy journal. Each of them describes the results from the devices of the spacecraft: magnetic field sensor, two instruments to detect energetic particles in different energy ranges and two instruments for studying plasma.

Voyager 2 confirmed the reading of Voyager 1 space probe that there is a fairly clear boundary between the heliosphere and interstellar space, at the intersection of which radiation indicators have increased. “Taken together, the findings help paint a picture of this cosmic shoreline, where the environment created by our Sun ends and the vast ocean of interstellar space begins,” the NASA report says.

The initial goal of both Voyagers launched in 1977 was to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 has also made the only flight in history near Uranus and Neptune. Finally, both spacecrafts crossed the borders of the Solar System. Voyager 1 left it in 2012. At the present time, it is located at a distance of 22 billion kilometers from the Sun.