NASA’s Voyager 2 probe enters interstellar space-The mission was launched in 1977

• Voyager 2, a NASA probe launched in 1977 and designed for just a five-year mission, has become only the second human-made object to enter interstellar space as it continues its marathon trek billions of kilometres from the earth, scientists said.
• Data from instruments aboard the spacecraft showed it crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere, a protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields produced by the sun, on November 5, NASA said.
• The boundary crossed by the intrepid probe as it journeys a bit more than 18 billion km from the earth is called the heliopause, a place where the hot solar wind runs up against the interstellar medium, the soup of stuff residing between the stars of our Milky Way galaxy.
• Voyager 2 was launched in 1977, 16 days before Voyager 1.

The Hindu