Yep, that's right. The Voyager argument continues to rage on. Has it or Hasn't it?
According to NASA's JPL which continues to monitor Voyager:
- A paper recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters describes an alternate model for the interaction between the heliosphere ....... and the interstellar medium. It proposes a test for whether Voyager 1 has, indeed, left the heliosphere.
NASA's Voyager project scientist, Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena explains:
- (the) models, which he and colleagues used to conclude that Voyager 1 entered interstellar space, predict that the density of interstellar wind outside the heliosphere is 40 times greater than the density of the solar wind inside.
- The observational data .... revealed a plasma density that was 40 times higher. (So) they concluded that Voyager 1 had ... entered interstellar space around August 25, 2012.
However new models:
- (argue) that solar wind inside the heliosphere can be compressed to the point that the solar wind density inside is just as high as interstellar space outside. Therefore, Voyager 1 could still be inside.
If Voyager 1 is still inside the heliosphere, it should observe a reversal in direction of the solar magnetic field sometime before the end of 2015.
Scientists at JPL will be looking carefully at the data coming in over the next 18 months to see if Voyager picks up this change.
To read the complete NASA JPL article click HERE
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