NASA's voyager 2 probe has reached interstellar space

NASA has announced that its space probe the voyager 2 has entered interstellar space becoming the second human-made object to reach the space between stars. voyager 2 launched in 1977 and has since spent four decades exploring our solar system.

images courtesy of NASA

according to NASA the spacecraft left the region of the sun’s influence last month and is now beyond the outer boundary of the heliosphere, approximately 11 billion miles from earth. the space probe is trailing voyager 1, which reached interstellar space in 2012.

voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited all four gas giant planets — jupiter, saturn, uranus and neptune. it also discovered 16 moons, as well as other phenomena including the mysteriously transient great dark spot on neptune, cracks in europa’s ice shell, and ring features at every planet.

video by NASA jet propulsion laboratory

scientists have anticipated voyager 2’s grand departure since late august according to space.com. during that time the space probe translated data which suggested it was nearing what scientists call the heliopause, a bubble created by the solar wind of charged particles flowing out from our sun and influencing the environment within our solar system. the heliopause is used by scientists to mark where interstellar space begins.

according to NASA, the voyagers are still technically in our solar system. scientists maintain the solar system stretches to the outer edge of the so-called oort cloud, a sphere of icy bodies millions of miles away. although the news makes for an exciting announcement not much will change for voyager 2. it will continue beaming home information for as long as it can but will eventually lose power and fall off the radar.