An article published in “Astrophysical Journal Letters” describes a new analysis of the data collected by NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe to understand why certain detections were abnormal. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012 but the unclear data raised discussions. After about a year, NASA confirmed the event but some unexpected characteristics of the solar system borders required further studies.

Nathan Schwadron of the University of New Hampshire, Durham, led a team of researchers who found strong evidence that the Voyager 1 spacecraft is in a region where the magnetic field is deflected by the solar wind. According to their study, within about 10 years, Voyager 1 will reach a “pristine” region of space where this influence of the solar wind will cease.

Entering interstellar space means leaving the heliosphere, which is the area of space where the solar wind’s influence is felt. The analyzes carried out in previous years convinced NASA scientists that Voyager 1 crossed the border but some things still didn’t add up. In particular, the direction of the local interstellar magnetic field wasn’t as expected.

According to this new research, the anomaly is due to the fact that the Voyager 1 space probe is in a distorted magnetic field just outside the heliopause, the boundary between the solar wind and interstellar space. Nathan Schwadron made a comparison with a rubber band around a ball that can be stretched.

A help to this research came from the discovery of a “ribbon” of energetic neutral atoms made by NASA’s IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) space probe spacecraft, which specifically aims to study that area. According to the scientists, this ribbon is produced by a flow of neutral hydrogen atoms from the solar wind that get reionized in interstellar space then capture electrons to become neutral again.

Various analyzes of the data collected confirms that the direction of the magnetic field at the center of the ribbon discovered by IBEX is the same as that of the pristine interstellar space. Basically, increasing the distance from the heliosphere, the magnetic field changes direction.

We must hope that the Voyager 1 space probe keeps on working and can send the data on this border area. It’s literally the last frontier for a vehicle built by human beings so all data collected are new and can give us more surprises. In the coming years, Voyager 2, which has a different trajectory, should also reach interstellar space and carry out further detections.

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