Voyager 1 at zero solar wind
December 13, 2010: The 33-year odyssey of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached a distant point at the edge of our solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind.
Now hurtling toward interstellar space some 17.4 billion kilometers (10.8 billion miles) from the sun, Voyager 1 has crossed into an area where the velocity of the hot ionized gas, or plasma, emanating directly outward from the sun has slowed to zero. Scientists suspect the solar wind has been turned sideways by the pressure from the interstellar wind in the region between stars.
This is so cool, 33 years on duty and still giving us answers to once unknown questions of our solar system. Now Voyager 1 is on its way to reveal some answers on interstellar space and maybe even from the nearest stars.
The bonus is we have Voyage 2 to compare data when it reaches zero solar wind and behond.