Confirmed – The United States relaxes regulations for autonomous car manufacturers such as Tesla, General Motors, and Waymo in a historic shift toward smart mobility
Neither oil nor tourism – mining emerges as the key to economic progress in resource-rich regions
It’s official – the gasoline- and fossil-fuel-free car returns to Japan, promising to revolutionize sustainable mobility
Voyager 1 has been flying through outer space since 1977
, so much so that it is currently 24 billion kilometres away from us. It has just caught the attention of the entire scientific community after crossing the invisible boundary that separates the solar space from interstellar space. The what?
Yes, out there in the distance there is a “wall of fire”, a region with temperatures of up to 30,000ºC. If people are already complaining about the heat in Phoenix, just imagine…
This discovery has redefined cosmic cartography and reinforces a theory called the heliopause. Stick around to learn everything related to this discovery!
A new edge of the Solar System
Since its launch, Voyager 1 has flown past Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons, delivering historic images. But its most ambitious mission began when it left the planetary zone and ventured into the solar periphery. There, in the heliopause, the pressure of the solar wind balances with that of the interstellar medium.
Far from dying in the attempt, the spacecraft’s sensors have detected a rise in temperature and density of energetic particles, a phenomenon dubbed the “wall of fire”.
What is the heliopause?
Let’s take it step by step. The heliopause is basically the edge of our solar system. The boundary or limit where the Sun’s influence ends and the rest of space begins.
Beyond it, charged particles dominated by other stars flow freely.
- It protects the solar system from part of the high-energy cosmic rays.
- It works as a natural laboratory to study plasmas under conditions impossible to recreate on Earth.
- It provides key data about how a star’s activity influences the habitability of the worlds that orbit it.
The detection of the “wall of fire” confirms that, even in low-density regions, collisions between stellar winds generate enormous temperatures without damaging the spacecraft due to the lack of matter.
A wall of fire at 30,000 °C
NASA engineers explain that the measured temperature does not correspond to heat that could burn solid material, but rather to the kinetic energy of particles traveling nearly at the speed of light.
In this extremely thin gas, collisions are so rare that Voyager 1 passes through the region unharmed, like a true champion.
Magnetohydrodynamic consequences
The fact that the probe detects similar magnetic fields on both sides of the heliopause is surprising to the scientific community because, until now, it was believed that interstellar magnetism would differ significantly from solar. But now we know that the solar wind drags field lines that, when compressed, generate a magnetic reconnection zone capable of transforming kinetic energy into heat.
Voyager 1: a relic still making history
48 years in service, a true veteran, the probe operates with barely 4 watts of power per instrument. Its plutonium batteries lose energy every year, but engineers don’t want to let it go and have optimized the power budget to keep the plasma and cosmic ray sensors on.
The distance causes radio signals to weaken. To compensate, NASA uses 70-meter antennas and ultra-precise receivers.
But its mission doesn’t end there. They want to extend Voyager 1’s life at least until 2030… will it survive?
What comes after the wall of fire?
The probe will continue measuring the density of particles and magnetic fields in the interstellar medium. This data will help refine models of the heliosphere’s structure and prepare for future manned missions beyond Pluto!
Voyager 1’s crossing of the “wall of fire” has been a milestone. Now it’s up to NASA to open new paths of interstellar exploration. What lies beyond?
NASA’s Voyager spacecraft revealed a remarkable discovery at the edge of our solar system: a vast region of superheated plasma, reaching temperatures between 30,000 and 50,000 Kelvin.
This area, encountered by both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 as they crossed the heliopause, the…
pic.twitter.com/dnec4HmTzY
— Erika (@ExploreCosmos_)
June 12, 2025
