The Voyager 1 and 2 ballistic capsule are continue to deliver unbelievable data point decades after their principal military mission of studying the giant planets terminate . They are the only human - made objects to have attain interstellar distance , providing world with observations like no other legal document .
In a newfangled paper publish inThe Astronomical Journal , research worker have discovered bursts of electron being speed up as undulation from the Sun run into the interstellar medium . These electrons are moving at almost the speed of light and were 670 times faster than the shockwaves that create them .
It all starts with the Sun . When our star is active it can hold plasma into the Solar System in spectacular coronal mass ejections motivate at hundreds ( and sometimes up to 1000 ) of kilometre per s . These Wave of plasm eventually reach interstellar place where they slam into the electrons loose by other virtuoso . These electrons are reflected back into interstellar space keep up magnetic lines .
" What we see here specifically is a certain mechanism whereby when the shock absorber wave first get hold of the interstellar magnetized field lines passing through the spacecraft , it reflects and accelerate some of the cosmic ray of light electron , " head author Don Gurnett , a professor emeritus in physics and uranology at Iowa University , said in astatement . " We have identified through the cosmic ray of light instruments these are electron that were reflected and accelerated by interstellar shock propagate outward from energetic solar events at the Lord’s Day . That is a newfangled mechanism . "
The first proposal of this mechanism was put fore in 2014 . At the time , Voyager 1 had been traveling in interstellar space for two years andVoyager 2was still on this side of the edge .
" The idea that cushion waves accelerate particle is not newfangled , " Gurnett added . " It all has to do with how it work , the mechanism . And the fact we notice it in a new realm , the interstellar medium , which is much different than in the solar wind where similar processes have been observed . No one has go through it with an interstellar shock wave , in a whole Modern pristine medium . "
It takes radio signals 21 hours to get hold of Voyager 1 and 17.5 hour to reach Voyager 2 . Over the long time , some of their instrumentshad to be switch offto keep them going and Voyager 2 had to gowithout contact for 8 monthsthis class . Despite all this , they endure and continue to send back data point from the profundity of outer space .
