Journal article
Plasma densities near and beyond the heliopause from the Voyager 1 and 2 plasma wave instruments
NATURE ASTRONOMY, Vol.3(11), pp.1024-1028
11/01/2019
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-019-0918-5
Abstract
The heliopause is the boundary between the hot heliospheric (solar wind) plasma and the relatively cold interstellar plasma. Pressure balance considerations show that there should be a large (factor of 20 to 50) density increase across the heliopause. Here we report electron density measurements from the Voyager 1 and 2 plasma wave instruments near and beyond the heliopause. The plasma density in the outer heliosphere is typically about 0.002 cm(-3). The first electron density measured by the Voyager 2 plasma wave instrument in the interstellar medium, 0.039 cm(-3) +/- 15%, was on 30 January 2019 at a heliocentric radial distance of 119.7 au. The density jump, about a factor of 20, confirms that Voyager 2 crossed the heliopause. The new density is very similar to the first density measured in the interstellar medium by the Voyager 1 plasma wave instrument, 0.055 cm(-3), on 23 October 2013 at a radial distance of 122.6 au. These small differences in the densities and radial distances are probably due to the relative locations of the spacecraft in the boundary layer that forms in the interstellar plasma just beyond the heliopause.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Plasma densities near and beyond the heliopause from the Voyager 1 and 2 plasma wave instruments
- Creators
- D. A. Gurnett - University of IowaW. S. Kurth - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- NATURE ASTRONOMY, Vol.3(11), pp.1024-1028
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41550-019-0918-5
- ISSN
- 2397-3366
- eISSN
- 2397-3366
- Number of pages
- 5
- Grant note
- 1622510 / NASA; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/01/2019
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984455273202771
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