Voyager 1 Can 'Taste' the Interstellar Shore

[Craig]

http://news.discovery.com/space/voyager-1-flys-into-a-mystery-magnetic-highway-121203.html

As the 35-year-old Voyager 1 probe gets ever closer to becoming mankind's first interstellar emissary, mission scientists have announced that the probe has now entered a new and mysterious region of the heliosphere nicknamed the "magnetic highway."

The heliosphere is the sphere of influence of our sun -- it is basically a bubble in interstellar space inflated by the sun where all planets and all spacecraft are contained within.

After completing its primary mission of outer solar system exploration many years ago, Voyager 1 (and its twin probe Voyager 2) has been ploughing through the outermost reaches of the heliosphere, rapidly approaching the limit of the solar system -- called the heliopause.

Although data collected by the aging Voyager 1 have been showing strong signs of flying beyond the heliopause, mission scientists at the AGU conference in San Francisco announced on Monday that hopes of an interstellar Voyager 1 are premature.

[cosmic dave]

Mmmm very interesting. Bet its pretty cold out there..