Sunday, September 15, 2013

Epic journey of Voyager 1

Mankind's historic leap into interstellar space.
In the same way that Sputnik carried us out of the Earth's atmosphere in 1957, Voyager has now carried us outside the sun's atmosphere.
"Voyager-1's milestone should cause us all to pause and consider that this tiny spacecraft, now almost 19 billion km from Earth, represents us as a single species - and not as we more often see ourselves - divided by our ideologies, nationalities and religious beliefs." 
Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space. 
The NASA spacecraft, which rose from 
Earth on a September morning 36 years ago, 
has traveled farther than anyone, or anything, in history.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_edstone.html
Stone's exploration days began in 1961 
with his first cosmic-ray experiments on 
Discoverer satellites. He has been a principal 
investigator on nine NASA spacecraft missions 
and a co-investigator on five other NASA missions. 
One of his most famous contributions to space 
exploration is his continuing role as project scientist 
for the Voyager mission, whose twin spacecraft 
studied Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune 
between 1979 and 1989.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_edstone.html
 Voyager 1 exits solar system in breathtaking achievement, 36 years after launch.
We're in interstellar plasma. In theory, that meant you could tell when Voyager 1 had left the solar system simply by periodically checking the plasma density. The heliopause is relatively hot and low-density, while interstellar space is cold and high-density.
picture shared from: Beth Waltz
This graphic shows the main evidence that 
Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space. 
The blue line shows particle density, 
which dropped as Voyager 1 moved away 
from the sun, and then jumped again after it 
crossed the “termination shock” that is where 
the sun’s solar wind (particles streaming from 
the sun) slows down. 
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
http://www.universetoday.com
Of course, as Carl Sagan pointed out at the time, Voyager is far from any actual planets -- 
and only getting farther. 
It will be 40,000 years before the spacecraft encounters another planetary system. 
If phonographs and 8-tracks seem outdated now, just imagine how they’ll look then.

Given the distance, it takes about 17 hours for Voyager's signals to reach 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.

Voyager 1 launches from the Kennedy Space Center 
on Sept. 5, 1977.  
Credit: NASA

The lonely probe, which is 18.8 billion kms from Earth and hurtling away at 38,000 mph, has long been on the verge of bursting through the heliosphere, a vast, bullet-shaped bubble of particles blown out by the sun. Scientists have spent this year debating whether it had done so, interpreting the data Voyager sent back in different ways.
But now it is official that Voyager 1 passed into the cold, dark and unknown vastness of interstellar space, a place full of dust, plasma and other matter from exploded stars. The article in Science pinpointed a date: August 25, 2012.

People behind the mission: 
Dr. Ed Stone and colleagues 
discuss Voyager findings.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_edstone.html 


Finding the Solar System’s Edge
The solar wind flows outward from the sun traveling at one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) an hour, a bath of energetic particles that's blasted off the solar surface and into space, where it surrounds our star like a bubble.
At its edges, the solar wind piles up into the "interstellar wind," a cloud of cooler charged particles that suffuse the thin vacuum of space between stars.
Surprise! Galaxy, Sun's Magnetic Fields Aligned
Scientists were surprised by NASA's finding that the galaxy's magnetic field is apparently aligned in the same direction as the sun's, forming a "magnetic highway." Space scientists had generally assumed that the galaxy's magnetic field would have some other direction.
Pasadena, California: The spacecraft's technology was laughable by today's standards: it carried an eight-track tape recorder and computers with 240,000 times less memory than a low-end iPhone. When it left Earth 36 years ago, it was designed as a four-year mission to Saturn, and everything after that was gravy.
But Voyager I has become - unexpectedly - the Little Spacecraft That Could. On Thursday, scientists declared that it had become the first man-made object to exit the solar system, a breathtaking achievement that NASA could only fantasise about back when it was launched in 1977, the same year that Star Wars was released.
Said Donald Gurnett, a professor of physics at the University of Iowa and the co-author of a paper published Thursday in the journal Science about Voyager's feat. "I mean, consider the distance. It's hard even for scientists to comprehend."
Even among planetary scientists, who tend to dream large, the idea that something they built could travel so far for so long and pierce the sun's reach is an impressive one. Plenty of telescopes gaze at the far parts of the Milky Way, but Voyager 1 can now touch and feel this unexplored region and send back detailed dispatches. Given the distance, it takes about 17 hours for Voyager's signals to reach NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.

voyager 1 picture credit

http://en.wikipedia.org
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram (1,590 lb) space probe launched by the US space agency, NASA, on September 5, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and interstellar medium. Operating for 36 years and 9 days as of 14 September 2013, the spacecraft communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data. At a distance of about 125 AU from the Sun as of August 2013, it is the farthest man-made object from Earth.
Voyager under construction in the 1970s. (NASA)
picture credit: http://www.washingtonpost.com
http://en.wikipedia.org

On September 12, 2013, NASA announced that Voyager 1 had entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012, making it the first man-made object to do so. As of 2013, the probe was moving with a relative velocity to the Sun of 17 kilometres per second (11 mi/s). The amount of power available to the probe has decreased over time and will no longer be able to power any single instrument by 2025. http://en.wikipedia.org

#For latest updates on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

  
To mark the occasion, NASA unveiled the first Voyager 1 recording of the sound of interstellar space, offering the probe's strange, otherworldly take on its new frontier. The sounds are produced by the vibration of dense plasma, or ionized gas; they were captured by the probe's plasma wave instrument, NASA officials wrote in a video description. [Voyager 1's Journey to Interstellar Space: A Photo Tour]
"When you hear this recording, please recognize that this is an historic event. It's the first time that we've ever made a recording of sounds in interstellar space," Don Gurnett, principle investigator for the Voyager plasma wave investigation, said in a news conference.

Voyager 1 is expected to keep sending back data - with a 23-watt transmitter, about the equivalent of a refrigerator light bulb - until roughly 2025.



Historic moments in Voyager 1 journey
Capturing the earth and moon for the first time
On Sept. 18, 1977, Voyager 1 took three images 
of the Earth and Moon that were combined into 
this one image. The moon is artificially brightened 
to make it show up better. Credit: NASA 
http://www.universetoday.com

Voyager 1 pale blue dot. 
Image credit: NASA/JPL
http://www.universetoday.com
Prometheus, a small potato-shaped moon of Saturn, 
shown in this Voyager 1 picture interacting with 
the planet’s F ring. Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI 
http://www.universetoday.com
Encaladus, a moon of Saturn, 
as shown in this Voyager 1 image. 
Credit: NASA 
http://www.universetoday.com
Saturn’s moon Titan lies under a thick 
blanket of orange haze in this Voyager 1 picture. 
Credit: NASA
http://www.universetoday.com
Io’s blotchy volcanoes are clearly visible 
in this image from Voyager 1. Credit: NASA 
http://www.universetoday.com

Thankfully consulted/shared from:
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_edstone.html
http://www.universetoday.com/104729/10-historic-moments-in-voyagers-journey-to-interstellar-space/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24068221
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/09/12/
http://www.theverge.com
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130911
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/

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