4 decades after launch from Earth, Voyager 2 at edge of solar system

Washington DC: NASA's Voyager 2 probe is approaching interstellar space and has detected an increase in cosmic rays that originate outside our solar system, the US space agency said. Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 is a little less than 17.7 billion km from Earth, or more than 118 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.

Since 2007 the probe has been travelling through the outermost layer of the heliosphere — the vast bubble around the Sun and the planets dominated by solar material and magnetic fields. Voyager scientists have been watching for the spacecraft to reach the outer boundary of the heliosphere, known as the heliopause. Once Voyager 2 exits the heliosphere, it will become the second human-made object, after Voyager 1, to enter interstellar space.

Since late August, the Cosmic Ray Subsystem instrument on Voyager 2 has measured about a five per cent increase in the rate of cosmic rays hitting the spacecraft compared to early August. The probe's Low-Energy Charged Particle instrument has detected a similar increase in higher-energy cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays are fast-moving particles that originate outside the solar system. Some of these cosmic rays are blocked by the heliosphere, so mission planners expect that Voyager 2 will measure an increase in the rate of cosmic rays as it approaches and crosses the boundary of the heliosphere.