The Voyager 2 station may have approached the borders of the solar system, NASA reports.
Scientists came to such conclusions after analyzing data from the scientific instrument CRS (Cosmic Ray Subsystem) of the spacecraft. The device from the beginning to the end of August recorded an increase in the energy of cosmic rays reaching Voyager 2 by about five percent.
A similar phenomenon was observed in May 2012, three months before the Voyager 1 station crossed the heliopause into interstellar space.
Voyager 2 is currently about 17.7 billion kilometers from Earth (118 times the distance between our planet and the Sun).
The Voyager 2 team acknowledges that the environment around the station is changing, but notes that the increase in cosmic ray energy cannot be considered the definitive sign of the passage of the heliopause, which changes position during the 11-year solar cycle.
The boundaries of the solar system are defined in two ways. According to the first, the limits are determined by the heliosphere (the magnetic analogue of the planetary atmosphere), the second - by the Hill sphere (the area with the determining gravitational influence of the central celestial body). For the Sun, the radius of the Hill sphere is estimated at one to two light years.
The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft are identical; the launch weight of one station (together with hydrazine) is 815 kilograms. When unfolded, the device is placed in a cube with a side of four meters. Voyager 2 was launched in August 1977, 16 days earlier than Voyager 1. The devices, in addition to scientific equipment, carry messages from humanity to possible alien civilizations.
Voyager 2 became the first station to fly past the four giant planets of the solar system at once, which made it possible to discover 3 new moons of Jupiter, 4 - Saturn, 11 - Uranus, and 6 - Neptune. Until now, no spacecraft has flown so close to the last two planets.
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Voyager 1 followed a different trajectory - after the flight of Saturn, the spacecraft headed not towards Uranus and Neptune, but directly to interstellar space. In December 2011, Voyager 1 left the heliosphere, becoming the first man-made object to be in the heliopause (separating the heliosphere from interstellar space).
It is believed that three radioisotope thermoelectric generators will allow Voyager 1 and 2 to keep in touch with Earth until about 2027. Estimates show that Voyager 2 in 40 thousand years will fly 1.7 light years past the dim red dwarf Ross 248, located 10.3 light years from Earth in the constellation Andromeda.