After 41 years of travel, the Voyager 2 spacecraft joins its twin in interstellar space. A suite of papers report Voyager 2's experience of its transition through the heliosheath and heliopause to what lies beyond.
In this Letter, we provide constraints on the direction and magnitude of the pristine (i.e., unperturbed by the interaction with the Sun) local interstellar magnetic field. The constraints are based on analysis of the interstellar magnetic field components at the heliopause measured by magnetometer instruments on board Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. The analysis was performed with the help of our kinetic-magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) model of the global heliosphere. The model shows that the solar-induced disturbances of the interstellar magnetic field are extended relatively far from the Sun up to …
We report "ground truth", 28-3500 keV in-situ ion and 5.2-55 keV remotely sensed ENA measurements from Voyager 2/Low Energy Charged Particle (LECP) detector and Cassini/Ion and Neutral Camera (INCA), respectively, that assess the components of the ion pressure in the heliosheath. In this process, we predict an interstellar neutral hydrogen density of ~0.12 cm-3 and an interstellar magnetic field strength of ~0.5 nT upstream of the heliopause in the direction of V2, i.e. consistent with the measured magnetic field and neutral density measurements at Voyager 1 from August 2012, when the spacecra…
Plasma wave observations from Voyager 1 have recently shown large increases in plasma density, to about 0.1 cm^{-3}, consistent with the density of the local interstellar medium. However, corresponding magnetic field observations continue to show the spiral magnetic field direction observed throughout the inner heliosheath. These apparently contradictory observations may be reconciled if Voyager 1 is inside an interstellar flux transfer event - similar to flux transfer events routinely seen at the Earth's magnetopause. If this were the case, Voyager 1 remains inside the heliopause and based on…
The solar wind carves in the interstellar plasma a cavity bounded by a surface, called the heliopause (HP), that separates the plasma and magnetic field of solar origin from the interstellar ones. It is now generally accepted that in August 2012 Voyager 1 (V1) crossed that boundary. Unexpectedly, the magnetic fields on both its sides, although theoretically independent of each other, were found to be similar in direction. This delayed the identification of the boundary as the heliopause and led to many alternative explanations. Here we show that the Voyager 1 observations can be readily explai…
The magnetometer (MAG) on Voyager 1 (V1) has been sampling the interstellar magnetic field (ISMF) since August 2012. The V1 MAG observations have shown draped ISMF in the very local interstellar medium disturbed occasionally by significant enhancements in magnetic field strength. Using a three-dimensional, data driven, multi-fluid model, we investigated these magnetic field enhancements beyond the heliopause that are supposedly associated with solar transients. To introduce time-dependent effects at the inner boundary at 1 astronomical unit, we used daily averages of the solar wind parameters …
In mid-2012, a GMIR observed by Voyager 2 crossed through the heliosheath and collided with the heliopause, generating a pressure pulse that propagated into the very local interstellar medium. The effects of the transmitted wave were seen by Voyager 1 just 93 days after its own heliopause crossing. The passage of the transient was accompanied by long-lasting decreases in galactic cosmic ray intensities that occurred from ~2012.55 to ~2013.35 and ~2012.91 to ~2013.70 at Voyager 2 and Voyager 1, respectively. Omnidirectional (>20 MeV) proton-dominated measurements from each spacecraft's Cosmic R…
Since crossing the heliopause on August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 observed reductions in galactic cosmic ray count rates caused by a time-varying depletion of particles with pitch angles near 90-deg, while intensities of particles with other pitch angles remain unchanged. Between late 2012 and mid-2017, three large-scale events occurred, lasting from ~100 to ~630 days. Omnidirectional and directional high-energy data from Voyager 1's Cosmic Ray Subsystem are used to report cosmic ray intensity variations. Omnidirectional (greater than ~20 MeV) proton-dominated measurements show up to a 3.8% intensit…
We suggest an analogy between energetic particle and magnetic field observations made by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in the distant heliosheath at 122 AU in August 2012, and those made in the distant geomagnetic tail by the ISEE 3 spacecraft in 1982-1983, despite large differences in the time and distance scales. The analogy suggests that in August, 2012, Voyager 1 may not have moved from the anomalous cosmic ray (ACR)-dominated heliosheath into the interstellar medium but into a region equivalent to the "lobes" of the geomagnetic tail, composed of heliospheric field lines which have reconnected …
Voyager 1 has explored the solar wind-interstellar medium interaction region between the Terminal Shock and the Heliopause, following the intensity distribution of the shock accelerated anomalous component of cosmic rays in the MeV energy range. The sudden disappearance of this component at 121.7 AU from the sun is discussed in terms of three models for the transition into the interstellar plasma flow. Particles trapped flowing parallel to the boundary may penetrate up to one Larmour radius beyond. If the boundary is stationary, Voyager 1 directly samples this distance. The boundary could flap…
Shocks, compressible perturbations, and intermittency in the very local interstellar medium: Voyager 1 and 2 observations and numerical modeling
University of Alabama in Huntsville(亨茨维尔阿拉巴马大学);Manipal University Jaipur(斋浦尔马匹阿尔大学);Leonard F. Burlaga, Inc.(伦纳德·F·伯尔加公司);Space Research Center PAS (CBK PAN)(波兰科学院空间研究中心)
Dynamics of the Upwind Heliosphere Due to Data-Driven, Solar Wind and Magnetic Field Variations and Implications for Wave Propagation into the Very Local Interstellar Medium
Boston University(波士顿大学);Southwest Research Institute(西南研究院);Massachusetts Institute of Technology(麻省理工学院)
As the local interstellar plasma flows past our heliosphere, it is slowed and deflected around the magnetic obstacle of the heliopause. The interstellar magnetic field, frozen into this plasma, then becomes draped around the heliopause in a characteristic manner. We derive the analytical solution for this draped magnetic field in the limit of weak field intensity, assuming an ideal potential flow around the heliopause, which we model as a Rankine half-body. We compare the structure of the model magnetic field with observed properties of the IBEX ribbon and with in situ observations at the Voya…
We discuss results of magnetohydrodynamical model simulations of plasma dynamics in the proximity of the heliopause (HP). The model is shown to fit details of the magnetic field variations observed by Voyager 1 spacecraft during the transition from the heliosphere to the local interstellar medium (LISM). We propose an interpretation of magnetic field structures observed by Voyager 1 in terms of fine-scale physical processes. Our simulations reveal an effective transport mechanism of relatively dense LISM plasma across the reconnecting HP into the heliosphere. The mechanism is associated with a…
Since its formation 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system has most likely crossed numerous magnetized interstellar clouds and bubbles of different sizes and contents on its path through the Milky Way. Having a reference model for how the heliosphere and interstellar winds interact is critical for understanding our current Galactic environment, and it requires untangling the roles of two major actors: the time-variable solar wind and the local interstellar magnetic field. Numerical simulations predict a distortion of the heliosphere caused by both solar wind anisotropy and interstellar magnet…
A weak continuous line has been recently discovered onboard Voyager 1 in the interstellar medium, whose origin raised two major questions. First, how can this line be produced by plasma quasi-thermal noise on the Voyager short antenna? Second, why does this line emerge at some distance from the heliopause? We provide a simple answer to these questions, which elucidates the origin of this line. First, a minute quantity of supra-thermal electrons, as generally present in plasmas, whence the qualifier quasi-thermal, can produce a small plasma frequency peak on a short antenna, of amplitude indepe…
The sun and giant planets are generally thought to have the same helium abundance as that in the solar nebula from which they were formed 4.6 billion years ago. In contrast, the interstellar medium reflects current galactic conditions. The departure of current abundances from the primordial and protosolar values may help trace the processes that drive the nucleosynthesis evolution of the galaxy and planetary interior formation and evolution. The Galileo probe measured the He abundance in situ the atmosphere of Jupiter, showing that He is only slightly depleted compared to the solar value. For …
There was an expectation that the magnetic field direction would rotate dramatically across the heliopause (HP). This rotation was used as one of the criteria to determine if Voyager 1 (V1) had crossed the HP. Recently the Voyager team concluded that V1 crossed into interstellar space last year (Gurnett et al. 2013). The question is then why there was no significant rotation in the direction of the magnetic field across the HP (Burlaga et al. 2013). Here we present simulations that reveal that strong rotations in the direction of the magnetic field at the HP at the location of V1 (and Voyager …
The ease of interstellar rocket travel is an issue with implications for the long term fate of our own and other civilizations and for the much-debated number of technological civilizations in the Galaxy. We show that the physical barrier to interstellar travel can be greatly reduced if voyagers are patient, and wait for the close passage of another star. For a representative time of $\sim$1 Gyr, characteristic of the remaining time that Earth will remain habitable, one anticipates a passage of another star within $\sim 1500$~AU. This lowers the travel time for interstellar migration by $\sim$…
The interstellar neutral (ISN) gas enters the heliosphere and is detected at a few au from the Sun, as demonstrated by Ulysses and the nterstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) missions. Ulysses observed ISN gas from different vantage points in a polar orbit from 1994 to 2007, while IBEX has been observing in an Earth orbit in a fixed direction relative to the Sun from 2009. McComas et al. 2018 reported about an IMAP-Lo detector on board the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), with an ability to track the ISN flux in the sky. We present observation geometries for ISN gas for a detec…