AGU: Voyager Spacecraft Might Not Have Reached Interstellar Space, AGU
“In 2012, the Voyager mission team announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft had passed into interstellar space, traveling further from Earth than any other manmade object.
But, in the nearly two years since that historic announcement, and despite subsequent observations backing it up, uncertainty about whether Voyager 1 really crossed the threshold continues. There are some scientists who say that the spacecraft is still within the heliosphere – the region of space dominated by the Sun and its wind of energetic particles – and has not yet reached the space between the stars.”
NASA Responds: NASA Voyager Statement About Solar Wind Models
“A paper recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters describes an alternate model for the interaction between the heliosphere — a “bubble” around our planets and sun — and the interstellar medium. It also proposes a test for whether Voyager 1 has, indeed, left the heliosphere.
NASA’s Voyager project scientist, Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, responds.”
Related: Voyager 1 stories on SpaceRef

Marc Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor, podcaster and publisher who has worked in space media for more than 25 years. In 1999 he co-founded SpaceRef with Keith Cowing. The new media company grew into a network that included NASA Watch and The Astrobiology Web. After selling SpaceRef, he joined Multiverse Media, which later merged with SpaceNews. There he helped steer the combined company toward more multimedia, a subscription paywall and intelligence products, and pushed for a mobile app. He is also the founder of SpaceQ Media, Canada’s space news and market intelligence publication.

Marc started his first Internet content business in 1992 and hasn’t looked back. When he’s not working, he loves exploring Canada and the world and expanding his photography skills.

5 replies on “Is Voyager 1 in Interstellar Space?”

  1. The heliosphere probably varies with the the solar cycles so the “boundary” will probably vary over a period of time. But for all intents an purposes Voyager has left the solar system.

    1. Apparently not as there is no scientific consensus. Such things matter in science. More data will become available when Voyager 2 passes through the same region. It will take other probes or other methods of probing the heliosphere in order to collect enough data to get a scientific consensus.

  2. I suggest a 50 year moratorium on reporting whether Voyager 1 & 2 are in interstellar space.

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