Voyager Finds Three Surprises Near Our Solar System's Edge

I keep forgetting to update on the Voyager whine-fest I indulged in some time ago. In fact, funding was restored to the project, and the Voyagers continue to spin through space toward the edge of our solar system, investigating conditions in the termination shock, and checkin' out the heliopause.

Perhaps the most puzzling surprise is what Voyager 1 did not find at the shock. It had been predicted that interstellar ions would bounce back and forth across the shock, slowly gaining energy with each bounce to become high speed cosmic rays. Because of this, scientists expected those cosmic ray ions would become most intense at the shock. However, the intensity did not reach a maximum at the shock, but has been steadily increasing as Voyager 1 has been moving farther beyond the shock. This means that the source of those cosmic rays is in a region of the outer solar system yet to be discovered.

(Source: NASA)