Man’s most distant creation, Voyager 1 is still going strong. NASA have swung it 70 degrees from it’s normal orientation to align it’s instruments to study the solar wind. This is the first time it’s been manouvered in such a way for 21 years.
It’s currently located in the Heliosheath at the edge of the bubble formed by the solar wind blown off by our Sun, more than 11 billion miles away. Voyager 1 has been reading a net zero outward flow of the solar wind since last summer. The assumption is that the particles have changed direction due to opposing force from the interstaller wind. The manouver was made so that Voyager can measure in which direction the solar wind has turned.
“Knowing the strength and direction of the wind is critical to understanding the shape of our solar bubble and estimating how much farther it is to the edge of interstellar space.”
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