Planetary Group Seminar: Exploring the Perimeter of the Heliosphere using IBEX and Voyager Observations (G. Glöckler)

Forty-five years after they were launched, the two deep space probes of the Voyager Interstellar Mission are now exploring the distant nose region of the heliosphere in two different directions at distances from ~85 to ~135 astronomical units from the sun. Voyager 1 (V1) measurements of the magnetic field, plasma waves and energetic particles, have revealed numerous surprises, forcing a rethinking of our concepts of the heliosphere and its interaction with the local interstellar medium. Most heliospheric researchers now believe that V1 entered interstellar space in late August 2012 and are constructing models based on this assumption. However, we find, using pressure balance and measurements of the low energy neutral hydrogen atoms spectrum, that the strength of the magnetic field that VI is currently observing is only half of the strength of the local interstellar field. This and other observational evidence leads us to conclude that Voyager 1 is not yet in interstellar space but rather remains in a most unusual region of the heliosheath.