NASA's Voyager 1 In 'Cosmic Purgatory' On Verge Of Entering Milky Way

[Ryan Ruck]

NASA's Voyager 1 In 'Cosmic Purgatory' On Verge Of Entering Milky Way

Nasa's Voyager 1 has entered a new region of space between the Solar System and interstellar space in what Nasa has described as a 'cosmic purgatory'.

December 7, 2011

The spacecraft is close to leaving the Solar System and into the uncharted territory of the Milky Way after more than three decades in space.

Voyager 1 was launched with its twin, Voyager 2, by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) in 1977.

Voyager 1 is travelling at just under 11 miles per second and sending information from nearly 11 billion miles away from the sun.

It is about to become the first man-made object to leave the Solar System, although Nasa expects it to take between several months and years before it completely enters interstellar space. Voyager 2 will follow later.

Ed Stone, the Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said: "Voyager tells us now that we're in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system. Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back.

"We shouldn't have long to wait to find out what the space between stars is really like."

The primary mission for the spacecrafts was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn.

After uncovering important findings the mission was extended, with the radio contact with mission control lasting longer than had been expected.

Rob Decker, a Voyager Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument co-investigator from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said: "We've been using the flow of energetic charged particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to estimate the solar wind velocity. We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically. For the first time, the wind even blows back at us. We are evidently traveling in completely new territory. Scientists had suggested previously that there might be a stagnation layer, but we weren't sure it existed until now."

Voyager 1 and 2 both hold a a gold-coated copper phonograph record.

The record contains over 100 photographs of earth, a selection of greetings from languages around the world and a variety of sounds from the Earth.

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan wrote in an introduction to a CD version of the record that "billion years from now, when everything on Earth we've ever made has crumbled into dust, when the continents have changed beyond recognition and our species is unimaginably altered or extinct, the Voyager record will speak for us."

The Voyagers have enough power and fuel to operate until at least 2020.

It is predicted by that point that Voyager 1 will be 12.4 billion miles from the Sun, whilst Voyager 2 will be 10.5 billion miles away.

[Phil Fiord]

Excellent. Recall an early movie from the Star Trek saga where Vygr was the center of a craft. LOL!

[New Guy]

and in Star Trek 5 the other Voyager craft was destroyed by the Klingons doing target practice!

[American Patriot]

Little do the Aliens knows that we have armed both those craft with massive thermonuclear devices....

[Toad]

We got a lot of bang for the buck out of that little guy. That's some science money well spent.

[Ryan Ruck]

Yep, just like the 2 Mars rovers.

[Ryan Ruck]

Voyager Probe Will Become First Man-Made Spacecraft To Reach The Edge Of Our Solar System 'Within Months' (35 Years After It Left Earth)

April 26, 2012

More than three decades after launching, NASA’s workhorse spacecraft is now close to the edge of our solar system.

According to recent research published in Geophysical Letters, the probe is now 111 astronomical units from the sun - meaning it is 111 times further from the sun than it is from the Earth.

Voyager 1 has been exploring the fringes of the solar system since 2004 - and it is now close to the very edge of our solar system, affording the first-ever 'alien's eye' view of our planet.

The probe is still detecting 'spikes' in the intensity of cosmic ray electrons - which lead scientists to think it's still within the 'heliosheath', the very outer edge of our solar system.

Voyager 1 still has a little way to go before it completely exits the solar system and becomes the first manmade probe to cross into interstellar space, or the vast space between stars.

The spacecraft has enough battery power to last until 2020, but scientists think it will reach interstellar space before that - in a matter of several months to years.

Chief scientist Ed Stone of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the timing is unclear because no spacecraft has ever ventured this far.

'The journey continues,' Stone told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

For the past year, Voyager 1 used its instruments to explore the new region.

It appeared to be the cosmic doldrums where solar winds streaming out from the sun at 1 million mph have dramatically eased and high-energy particles from outside are seeping in - a sign that Voyager 1 is at the doorstep of interstellar space.

Scientists expect to see several telltale signs when Voyager 1 finally crosses the boundary including a change in the magnetic field direction and the type of wind. Interstellar wind is slower, colder and denser than solar wind.

Even with certain expectations, Stone warned that the milestone won’t be cut-and-dried.

'We will be confused when it first happens,' Stone said.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 to tour the outer planets including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. After their main mission ended, both headed toward interstellar space in opposite directions. Voyager 2 is traveling slower than Voyager 1 and is currently 9 billion away miles from the sun.

[American Patriot]

In space, no one can hear you scream.....

[American Patriot]

Voyager 1 Spaceship to Break Out of Solar System, Into Outer Space

This artist's concept shows NASA's two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath, the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our sun. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)





By NILS KONGSHAUG
June 15, 2012





Fifty-five years after humans first escaped the bounds of Earth and launched a satellite into orbit, we are about to cross another frontier.
We will soon extend our reach for the first time into true outer space – the vast emptiness beyond the protection of the sun.



Our emissary is a small, aging spaceship carrying a friendly message from President Jimmy Carter along with recordings of a baby crying and a whale singing, just in case anyone is out there to receive them.



Voyager 1 was launched in 1977. After exploring the outer planets, it was pointed toward deep space and a new mission. Today scientists announced it's going to get there a lot sooner than expected.



They're already seeing a change in the neighborhood.



"We are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly," says Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology. "It is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system's frontier."





That frontier is the farthest reach of the solar winds, the particles that shoot from the sun at a million miles an hour, giving us the northern lights as they bend around Earth's magnetic field.



At some distance from our sun the solar winds will be overwhelmed by the interstellar winds that blow among the stars.



That boundary, the very edge of the solar system, is called the "heliopause." No spacecraft has ever reached it, and scientists don't know exactly how far away it is. But last month the number of cosmic rays hitting Voyager 1 started to shoot up.



Scientists say it's a definite sign they're not in Kansas anymore.



Scientists say when Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause mankind will have entered a new era in space exploration. We will have a probe for the first time outside our own solar system and can study particles unaffected by our sun.



They say it could give us new clues into the origins of the universe.
Voyager 1 has enough fuel and power to send us messages until at least 2020, when it will be 12.4 billion miles from home. But it will keep traveling, even while silent.



And in a mere 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will approach another star. Another sun.

[American Patriot]

35 Years Later, Voyager 1 is Headed for the Stars

Tue, 09/04/2012 - 1:17pm

Alicia Chang, AP

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Thirty-five years after leaving Earth, Voyager 1 is reaching for the stars.


Sooner or later, the workhorse spacecraft will bid adieu to the solar system and enter a new realm of space - the first time a manmade object will have escaped to the other side.


Perhaps no one on Earth will relish the moment more than 76-year-old Ed Stone, who has toiled on the project from the start.


"We're anxious to get outside and find what's out there," he says.


When NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 first rocketed out of Earth's grip in 1977, no one knew how long they would live. Now, they are the longest-operating spacecraft in history and the most distant, at billions of miles from Earth but in different directions.


Wednesday marks the 35th anniversary of Voyager 1's launch to Jupiter and Saturn. It is now flitting around the fringes of the solar system, which is enveloped in a giant plasma bubble. This hot and turbulent area is created by a stream of charged particles from the sun.


Outside the bubble is a new frontier in the Milky Way - the space between stars. Once it plows through, scientists expect a calmer environment by comparison.


When that would happen is anyone's guess. Voyager 1 is in uncharted celestial territory. One thing is clear: The boundary that separates the solar system and interstellar space is near, but it could take days, months or years to cross that milestone.


Voyager 1 is currently more than 11 billion miles from the sun. Twin Voyager 2, which celebrated its launch anniversary two weeks ago, trails behind at 9 billion miles from the sun.


They're still ticking despite being relics of the early Space Age.


Each only has 68 kilobytes of computer memory. To put that in perspective, the smallest iPod - an 8-gigabyte iPod Nano - is 100,000 times more powerful. Each also has an eight-track tape recorder. Today's spacecraft use digital memory.


The Voyagers' original goal was to tour Jupiter and Saturn, and they sent back postcards of Jupiter's big red spot and Saturn's glittery rings. They also beamed home a torrent of discoveries: erupting volcanoes on the Jupiter moon Io; hints of an ocean below the icy surface of Europa, another Jupiter moon; signs of methane rain on the Saturn moon Titan.


Voyager 2 then journeyed to Uranus and Neptune. It remains the only spacecraft to fly by these two outer planets. Voyager 1 used Saturn as a gravitational slingshot to catapult itself toward the edge of the solar system.


"Time after time, Voyager revealed unexpected - kind of counterintuitive - results, which means we have a lot to learn," says Stone, Voyager's chief scientist and a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.


These days, a handful of engineers diligently listen for the Voyagers from a satellite campus not far from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built the spacecraft.


The control room, with its cubicles and carpeting, could be mistaken for an insurance office if not for a blue sign overhead that reads "Mission Controller" and a warning on a computer: "Voyager mission critical hardware. Please do not touch!"


There are no full-time scientists left on the mission, but 20 part-timers analyze the data streamed back. Since the spacecraft are so far out, it takes 17 hours for a radio signal from Voyager 1 to travel to Earth. For Voyager 2, it takes about 13 hours.


Cameras aboard the Voyagers were turned off long ago. The nuclear-powered spacecraft, about the size of a subcompact car, still have five instruments to study magnetic fields, cosmic rays and charged particles from the sun known as solar wind.

They also carry gold-plated discs containing multilingual greetings, music and pictures - in the off chance that intelligent species come across them.


Since 2004, Voyager 1 has been exploring a region in the bubble at the solar system's edge where the solar wind dramatically slows and heats up. Over the last several months, scientists have seen changes that suggest Voyager 1 is on the verge of crossing over.


When it does, it will be the first spacecraft to explore between the stars. Space observatories such as the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have long peered past the solar system, but they tend to focus on far-away galaxies.


As ambitious as the Voyager mission is, it was scaled down from a plan to send a quartet of spacecraft to Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in what was billed as the "grand tour" of the solar system. But the plan was nixed, and scientists settled for the Voyager mission.


American Univ. space policy expert Howard McCurdy says it turned out to be a boon.


They "took the funds and built spacecraft robust enough to visit all four gas giants and keep communicating" beyond the solar system, McCurdy says.


The double missions so far have cost $983 million in 1977 dollars, which translates to $3.7 billion now. The spacecraft have enough fuel to last until around 2020.


By that time, scientists hope Voyager will already be floating between the stars.

[American Patriot]

20 March 2013 Last updated at 13:57 ET Share this page

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Voyager Solar System 'exit' debated

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

The Voyager-1 probe may be outside the Solar System, some scientists say.


If confirmed, it would be the first man-made object to do so.


Launched in September 1977, the probe was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.


Researchers who have studied its data indicate it has now entered a realm of space beyond the influence of our Sun.


But the US space agency (Nasa) says there is still some doubt about this.


Voyager is currently moving more than 18 billion km from Earth, or 123 times the distance between our planet and the Sun.



Analysis David Shukman Science editor, BBC News


No human artefact has ever reached so deep into the cosmos.


A measure of the distance travelled is that it takes a staggering 16 hours for Voyager 1's radio messages to arrive on Earth.


Standing in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California two years ago, I watched as data from the lonely craft flickered across giant screens.


The scientist behind the mission, Ed Stone, talked in adoring terms of the 70s technology that has survived decades of hurtling through space to become mankind's most distant emissary.


NASA has speculated for years about the actual moment of crossing from our solar system into the void; and now this may finally have happened.
The next time the craft will come even remotely close to another star? About 40,000 years.

• Read more from David

The claim is made in a soon-to-be published paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.


The spacecraft has been monitoring changes in its environment for some time that have suggested it is about to cross the Solar System's border - the so-called heliopause.


Cosmic ray detection

It has been detecting a rise in the number of high-energy particles, or cosmic rays, coming towards it from interstellar space, while at the same time recording a decline in the intensity of energetic particles coming from behind, from our Sun.


A big change occurred on 25 August last year, which the GRL paper's authors say was like a "heliocliff".


"Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere," explained Prof Bill Webber from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.


Nasa funded the study but says the statement that Voyager could be in interstellar space does not reflect the view of everyone working on the project, and Prof Weber acknowledges there is an on-going debate.


Many researchers would like a long period with the data all pointing in one direction before calling the exit definitive.


"It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that," Prof Webber said in a release from the American Geophysical Union, publishers of GRL.


"We're in a new region. And everything we're measuring is different and exciting."Voyager-1 was launched on 5 September 1977, and its sister spacecraft, Voyager-2, on 20 August 1977.


The probes' initial goal was to survey the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - a task they completed in 1989.


They were then despatched towards deep space, in the general direction of the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy.


Their plutonium power sources will stop generating electricity in about 10-15 years, at which point their instruments and transmitters will die.


Voyager-1 is on course to approach a star called AC +793888, but it will only get to within two light-years of it and it will be tens of thousands of years before it does so.


Dallas Campbell describes the 35-year journey of Nasa's twin Voyager spacecraft: Broadcast February 2013