NASA’s Voyager 1 Probe Detects ‘Gentle Rain’ of Plasma Activity in Interstellar Space

NASA’s Voyager 1 Probe Detects ‘Gentle Rain’ of Plasma Activity in Interstellar Space

Voyager 1—the first man-made object to enter interstellar space—continues to detect plasma waves in deep space despite being far, far away from our sun.

Scientists think that interstellar space, which is the unimaginably vast near-vacuum in between stars, is filled with interstellar plasma.

James Cordes, George Feldstein professor of astronomy at Cornell University, said in a statement that interstellar space is "like a quiet or gentle rain," and that the activity of our sun—a solar flare, for example—is like a lighting burst of plasma activity.