The final leg of the journey beforereaching interstellar space has beenhit by NA

SA s Voyager 1 spacecraft asit entered, what scientists believe, isa new region th
at separates the outerreaches of our Solar System from theunexplored cosmos.The
area, which the Voyagerteam have described as a magnetichighway for charged parti
cles isthought to rest within our SolarSystem, inside the bubble boundary of char
ged particles that our Sun blowsaround our solar neighbourhood,called the helios
phere. Before reachingthis region, the particles bouncedaround in a haywire fash
ion, trappedwithin the Sun-made barrier. Voyager 1 continues to observe thespiral
magnetic field from the Sun, says Project Scientist of the spacecraft,Edward Stone
who divides his time between the California Institute of Technology and NASA s Je
t PropulsionLaboratory. Since August 25 2012,that field appears to be well connec
tedto interstellar space because all of the energetic ions from inside haveescap
ed and cosmic rays from outsidehave streamed inside. Stone reasonsthat since thes
e solar field lines arewell connected to the outside, theyare most likely to be
the outermostlayer of the Sun s heliosphere wherethey can contain and connect to t
heinterstellar magnetic field.
Voyager 1 finds new magnetic regionat the edge of the Solar System
YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE
As Stone and his team were notexpecting such results, they havecome to expect t
he unexpectedfrom the spacecraft and whateverit encounters. We expected thatVoyag
er 1 would have to be outsidethe heliosphere in order to observethe peak intensi
ty of cosmic raysoutside, says Stone. Instead, Voyagerdiscovered a boundary layer
of solarmagnetic field that allows the cosmicrays to stream inside. However, while
initial thoughts havenot come to fruition, the team are stillhedging bets on wh
at we can expectwhen the spacecraft smashes throughthe region and out into inter
stellarspace with the stream of particleslosing their way, choosing an alternate
route. Outside there is an interstellarcloud created by the explosion of massive
stars five to twenty millionyears ago, Stone tells
All AboutSpace
. The galactic magnetic fieldhas been swept up by the cloud anddrapes over the ou
ter surface of theheliospheric bubble. Low frequencyradio waves (2 to 3 kilohert
z) aregenerated in local interstellar spaceand there are low speed cosmicrays th
at were accelerated by theexplosions of the supernovae.