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Jonathan Amos @BBCAmos
, 6 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Exciting news from the legend that is Ed Stone from JPL. Voyager 2 has reached the heliopause - and stepped outside the solar system (if you use this definition). It crossed over on 5 Nov #AGU18
The position of the heliopause is currently moving outwards so it's possible it could catch up with Voyager 2 again, but for the moment the probe is exploring near interstellar space.
Voyager 2 is currently 119 astronomical unit from the Sun, ie 119 times the sun-earth distance. It's moving at about 60,000km/h
You can see the current status of V1 and V2 here: voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
On the pedantic issue of "leaving the Solar System". Stone has always been very careful not to use the phrase, mindful that his spacecraft still has to pass through the Oort cloud where there are comets gravitationally bound to the Sun, albeit very loosely...
But in a new domain of space, they certainly are.
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