New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Climate and Science => Space, Science and Nature => Topic started by: Deano on September 05, 2012, 11:56:57 AM
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On September 5, 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Thirty-five years later, the planetary probe is now an interstellar traveller, having travelled farther from Earth than any manmade object in history. As of 21:00 Universal Time on September 4, 2012, Voyager 1 was 18.21 billion kilometers (11.31 million miles) from home, or 121 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Light takes 33 hours and 44 minutes to travel the distance from Voyager 1 to Earth.
Having long since passed its primary targets of Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 has been cruising for decades toward the edge of the solar system. In fact, researchers have analyzed data from the probe’s particle detectors, cosmic ray detectors, and magnetometer and found evidence that they have passed the termination shock and into the heliosheath—the outer edge of influence for solar wind plasma and energy from our Sun. The probe is now in an area similar to the windless “doldrums” found in tropical seas on Earth. The solar wind has calmed, the magnetic field has piled up due to pressure from outside the solar system, and high-energy particles appear to be leaking out into interstellar space. The Voyager science team expects the spacecraft itself to pass out into that space sometime in the next year or so.
Full story here. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=79091&src=eoa-iotd (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=79091&src=eoa-iotd)
Here is a graphic from Heavens Above showing where the other probes are also.
(http://www.heavens-above.com/SolarEscapePic.aspx?sz=400&xSun=200&ySun=200&widthAU=240&EclLat=10&EclLong=0&cul=en-GB)
Heavens Above Website http://www.heavens-above.com/SolarEscape.aspx?lat=-36.5237&lng=174.476&loc=Kakanui&alt=175&tz=NZST (http://www.heavens-above.com/SolarEscape.aspx?lat=-36.5237&lng=174.476&loc=Kakanui&alt=175&tz=NZST)
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Is it still sending back data? What a trip!
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a lonley trip
also did you know there is a ring around uranus?
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Yes, they were first detected when they were watching a star passing behind in '77.
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Uranus&Display=Rings (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Uranus&Display=Rings)
Voyager II confirmed them.
And it rotates "on its side," 90 degrees away from its orbital motion.
was likely hit by a very large planetoid early in its history.
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I was just trying to be funny (i.e read out loud what I posted above, LOL)
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I remember Carl Sagan and others were careful to pronounce the name with the stress on the first syllable ;D
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http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Uranus&Display=Rings[/url]
Voyager II confirmed them.
And it rotates "on its side," 90 degrees away from its orbital motion.
was likely hit by a very large planetoid early in its history.
Thanks Deano, interesting reading, you learn something new every day :)