Six years after her twin sister, “Voyager 1” has left “Voyager 2” as the second spacecraft in the history of mankind, the heliosphere of the sun. Data analyses have shown that “Voyager 2” at 5. November had flown out of the area of the magnetic fields around the sun, said the US space Agency Nasa on Monday. The probe is now about 18 billion kilometers from earth, but that he could still communicate with the researchers – however, any Transfer of Information will take around 16.5 hours.
The travelers to an unknown destination
“Voyager 1” (English: traveler) was on 5. September 1977 launched the “Voyager 2” at 20. August 1977. The original in only four years, the missions have long been one of the most successful Nasa endeavours of all time. The two the around a ton of heavy probes had a Rendezvous with Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 visited Uranus and Neptune as the only probe, which flew past in all of this planet. 48 moons studied, the probes. The Voyager Duo is generators with long-lived Plutonium.
“Voyager 2” are now both Voyager probes outside of the influence of the solar wind – more than 18 billion…Illustration: Nasa/REUTERS
The sun did not leave the system, the two probes and the not so soon. The limit according to the current understanding of the so-called Oort cloud, a collection of small objects, in spite of the immense distance under the influence of the attraction by the sun, it said. “It will take 300 years for Voyager 2 to the inner edge of the Oort cloud reaches, and possibly 30,000 years, until she flew.” (dpa)
