Nasa's Voyager 2 may be ready to set another record by reaching Interstellar space soon !

Nasa's Voyager 2 may be ready to set another record by reaching Interstellar space soon !

Currently the Voyager 2 probe is in the outermost layer of the Heliosheath " Heliopause ". And is nearing an exit from our Solar System, as soon it does so it will become the second man made object to leave the solar system and reach interstellar space. Image souce - Nasa/Jpl

After successfull voyages to desired destinations of Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and all their artificial satellites, The Voyagers (1&2) were sent on to two different paths to exit the Solar System into Interstellar space. Voyager 1 was the first to cross the Solar System's outer zone what we call Heliosheath in the year 2012 and registered itself in Human records being the first man made object to reach interstellar space. Currently Voyager 1 is the farthest man made object in space, and is about 11.7 billion miles (18.8 billion kms) away from Earth, travelling at speeds of 61,000 km/hr. Voyager 2, the second Nasa probe had taken a different route and is currently thought to be in the zone of Heliosheath. But according to the US space agency, an increase in the amount of cosmic rays has been detected by the probe, which may indicate that it is close to approach the interstellar space, as cosmic rays are produced only outside the solar system.


Since 2007, The Voyager 2 has been through the Heliosheath zone (a bubble full of magnetic fields and solar materials), the last frontier of our Solar System. Once the Voyager crosses the Heliosheath, it will become the second man made object to cross the solar system into the interstellar space. The increase of cosmic ray has been detected by the Cosmic Ray Subsystem Instrument in the Voyager probe. This increase has been of about 5% from early August to the last of August this year.

Billions of years from now our sun, then a distended red giant star, will have reduced Earth to a charred cinder. But the Voyager record will still be largely intact, in some other remote region of the Milky Way galaxy, preserving a murmur of an ancient civilization that once flourished — perhaps before moving on to greater deeds and other worlds — on the distant planet Earth - Carl Sagan 

The Probe's cosmic ray detector has also shown us that the cosmic rays hitting it are high in energy. High energy cosmic rays originating outside the Solar System are not allowed inside due to the protective shield of heliosheath. The reports are conclusive because such increase in cosmic ray activity was also observed in may 2012 when Voyager 1 was in the heliosheath. That was before 3 months when Voyager 1 crossed the heliosheath to reach interstellar space. 

ALSO READ - What if humans dissapeared from Earth !

However, the Cosmic Ray activity is not enough to prove that Voyager 2 is near to exit the Heliopause, as Voyager 2,.in its journey has been following a quite different route to that of its predecessor Voyager 1, thus indifferent positions between them may lead to indifferent exit timelines. According to various Cosmologists, the 6 year difference between both the Voyagers in their exit sequence, could be a result of the movement of the Heliopause inwards and outwards in the Sun's 11 year Solar activity cycle. 


Solar activity refers to ejections of solar materials including solar flares and eruptions of materials also called Coronal Mass Ejection. During Sun's 11 year cycle this activity reaches both the maximum and minimum levels. So the changes in the environment around Voyager 2 could also be mere effects of Solar Activity.

ALSO READ - Why everybody is talking about Mars ?

We’re seeing a change in the environment around Voyager 2, there’s no doubt about that,” said Ed Stone, Voyager Project Scientist. “We’re going to learn a lot in the coming months, but we still don’t know when we’ll reach the heliopause. We’re not there yet – that is one thing I can say with confidence,” said Stone.

Will the Voyagers ever be into an advanced race or would they perish out before that ? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section !