Voyager has indeed left the Building

Im Oktober letzten Jahres legte ich mich darauf fest, dass Voyager unser Sonnensystem verlassen hat und wir seit damals als wahrscheinlich erstes Lebewesen dieses Sonnensystems den interstellaren Raum erforschen. Die Ergebnisse von damals wurden jetzt zur Publikation in den Geophysical Research Letters zugelassen. Elvis has indeed left the Building.

On August 25, 2012, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft measured drastic changes in radiation levels, more than 11 billion miles from the Sun. Anomalous cosmic rays, which are cosmic rays trapped in the outer heliosphere, all but vanished, dropping to less than 1 percent of previous amounts. At the same time, galactic cosmic rays – cosmic radiation from outside of the solar system – spiked to levels not seen since Voyager’s launch, with intensities as much as twice previous levels.

The findings have been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

“Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere,” said Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He calls this transition boundary the “heliocliff.”

Voyager 1 has left the solar system, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate

[update] Das Voyager-Team der NASA will’s immer noch nicht wahrhaben redet von „a new region called the magnetic highway“, aber ich bleib’ dabei: Voyager befindet sich im interstellaren Raum. Hier der Dings der NASA:

The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA’s Voyager 1 has left the solar system. It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called ‘the magnetic highway’ where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed.