« Launched over 35 years ago, Voyagers 1 and 2 are on an epic journey outward from the Sun to reach the boundary between the solar plasma and the much cooler interstellar medium. The boundary, called the heliopause, is expected to be marked by a large increase in plasma density, from about 0.002 cm−3 in the outer heliosphere, to about 0.1 cm−3 in the interstellar medium. On 9 April 2013, the Voyager 1 plasma wave instrument began detecting locally generated electron plasma oscillations at a frequency of about 2.6 kHz. This oscillation frequency corresponds to an electron density of about 0.08 cm−3, very close to the value expected in the interstellar medium. These and other observations provide strong evidence that Voyager 1 has crossed the heliopause into the nearby interstellar plasma. »
En d'autres termes, Voyageur 1 est officiellement le premier objet que nous avons fabriqué à avoir quitter le système solaire.
Je dois dire qu'avec le recul que ce genre de nouvelles me donne, il y a beaucoup d'autre choses fabriqués par l'humanité que j'aimerais voir suivre le même chemin, non pour des motifs scientifiques, mais pour des raisons politiques.
Gurnett, Kurth, Burlaga and Ness, In Situ Observations of Interstellar Plasma With Voyager 1, Science, 2013. < http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/09/11/science.1241681.abstract >