Voyager 1 crosses the termination shock at about 94 AU
The spacecraft passed through the surface where the supersonic solar wind is abruptly slowed against the pressure of the interstellar medium, and entered the heliosheath. This was not the edge of the Sun's influence but the first of its boundaries; another eight years of travel lay between this crossing and the heliopause.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- Voyager 1 · mission · Interstellar space, in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus · not located
- Termination shock · natural phenomenon · not located
- Solar wind · natural phenomenon · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Voyager 1 explores the termination shock region and the heliosheath beyond
Voyager 1 crossed the solar wind termination shock on 16 December 2004 at about 94 AU and entered the heliosheath. V55 verification basis: NOT CHECKED IN THIS RUN. The session's search budget was exhausted before this crossing could be searched and the publisher domain is blocked; the citation is given from standard mission record without page numbers precisely because they were not confirmed. A curator must verify the date, the distance and the citation before publication.
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) · 2005 · Partly verified
Stone, E. C. et al., Science 309 (2005) — the Voyager 1 termination shock papers published together in September 2005
Recorded on Voyager 1
- The full Grand Tour is cancelled and rebuilt as a two-spacecraft mission
- Voyager 1 launches
- Voyager 1 closest approach to Jupiter
- Active volcanism found on Io
- Voyager 1 passes Saturn and Titan, and leaves the plane of the planets
- Voyager 1 photographs the solar system from outside it
- Voyager 1 crosses the termination shock at about 94 AU
- Voyager 2 crosses the termination shock at about 84 AU
- Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause at 121.6 AU
- The 2012 crossing is confirmed from plasma oscillations
- Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem is switched off
- Voyager 1's low-energy charged particle instrument due for shutdown
- Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem is switched off · 2025-02-25
- Voyager 1's low-energy charged particle instrument due for shutdown · 2026 (announced plan)
- Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth · 2026-11-18 02:16 PST (computed)
- The 2012 crossing is confirmed from plasma oscillations · 2013-09-12
- Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause at 121.6 AU · 2012-08-25
- Voyager 2 crosses the termination shock at about 84 AU · 2007-08-30
- Voyager 1 photographs the solar system from outside it · 1990-02-14
- Voyager 1 passes Saturn and Titan, and leaves the plane of the planets · 1980-11-12