When did Voyager 1 and 2 enter interstellar space?

After Voyager 1 departed from Saturn in November 1980, it began its journey towards interstellar space. It crossed over to interstellar space on August 25, 2012, leaving behind the heliosphere – the enormous magnetic bubble encompassing the Sun, the planets and solar wind.

Voyager 2 headed towards interstellar space after departing from Neptune in August 1989. It entered interstellar space on November 5, 2018, six years after its twin did the same.

According to NASA, Voyager 1, the faster of the two probes, is currently over 13.6 billion miles (22 billion km) from the Sun, while Voyager 2 is 11.3 billion miles (18.2 billion km) from the Sun. It takes light about 16.5 hours to travel from Voyager 2 to Earth. By comparison, light travelling from the Sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth.

Factfile:

The heliosphere is a bubble around the Sun created by the outward flow of the solar wind and the opposing inward flow of the interstellar wind, while the heliopause marks the end of the heliosphere and the beginning of interstellar space.

 

Picture Credit : Google