![]() ![]() As of 2021, Voyager 1 is about 155 astronomical units (14.4 billion miles) from Earth, and Voyager 2 is nearly 129 astronomical units (12 billion miles) away. ![]() The spacecraft continue to send back data on the structure of the interstellar medium.Īfter its planetary encounters, Voyager 1 took the iconic “Pale Blue Dot” image, showing Earth from about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) away. They showed that interstellar space begins just over 18 billion kilometers (about 11 billion miles) from the sun. These exits were instrumental in enabling astronomers to determine where exactly the edge of interstellar space is, something that’s difficult to measure from within the solar system. Voyager 1 officially entered interstellar space in August 2012, and Voyager 2 joined it in November 2018. Interstellar space begins at the heliopause, where the solar wind – a flow of charged particles released by the sun – is too weak to continue pushing against the interstellar medium, and the pressure from the two balances out. ![]()
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