28 April 2011: More than 30 years, she left Earth, NASA's twin, the Voyager probes are now on the edge of the solar system. Not only that, they still work. And every day they are news, wrapping back to scientists, worrying is both exciting.
The message is, "to expect the unexpected."
"It's scary," says Ed stone of Caltech, Voyager project scientist since 1972. "Voyager 1 and 2 have a talent for discoveries."
Today, instead of 28 April 2011, NASA a live briefing, thinking about it, which reached the mission Voyager popular - and preview, the probes what lies ahead prepare enter the realm of the milky way itself.
The adventure began a rare alignment of the outer planet for one in the late 1970s, as the probes never because tour took advantage of unprecedented Grand. Voyager 1 visited Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. (Voyager 2 is still the only probe to visit Uranus and Neptune.)
When pressed to name the top findings from these encounters, stone, is a spoilt for choice not because of a lack of material, but rather. "It's so hard to choose," he says.
Stone's include the discovery of the volcanoes on Jupiter's moon IO; Evidence of an ocean beneath the icy surface of Europe; Hauch rain methane on Saturn's moon Titan; the crazy-tipped saw blades magnetic poles of Uranus and Neptune; Icy geysers on Neptune's moon Triton. Planetary winds that blow faster and faster with increasing distance from the Sun.
He says "Each of these discoveries, as we other worlds thought" stones.
1980 To the Voyager 1 the gravity of Saturn itself spinning Slingshot-style from the layer of the solar system. 1989, Voyager 2 was awarded a similar assist of Neptune. Both probes set sail into the void.
Sailing in the void sounds as a quiet time, but the findings have continued.
Stone stage which by directing our attention to the kitchen sink. "Enable the tap," he has. "Where the water meets the Valley, is, the Sun and the thin sheet of water flows radial of removed, that point is the solar wind." Note like the Sun 'blows a bubble around itself'.
It is really a bubble, researchers call it the "bow shock", and it's gargantuan. Solar, the bow shock is plasma and magnetic fields, about three times wider than the orbit of Pluto. All the planets, asteroids, space vehicles and way of life are our solar system is located.
Travelers, try to get out, but they are still not there. To find it, stone peers back in the Valley: "how to extend the water (or solar wind), it is thinner and thinner, and it can push not so hard." Abruptly, forms a sluggish, turbulent ring. "This outer ring is the Heliosheath-- and that's where the travellers are now."
The Heliosheath is a very strange place, filled with a magnetic foam no probe ever encountered, has before ECHO with low-frequency radio bursts only in the outer reaches of the solar system, so far from home is that the Sun is a mere needle of light.
"In many ways predicted the Heliosheath as our models," says stone.
Voyager 1 was back in June 2010 an amazing range: 0 (zero). This is the speed of the solar wind where the probe is now to the outside. No one thinks that; completed the solar wind It can have activated only a corner. But what manner? Voyager 1 is trying, which will be pursued maneuvers, find out where even v1 through a series of "Weather vane" in a different direction, the local breeze. The old probe has few links, it seems moves.
Nobody knows exactly how many more miles the travellers before they have to travel "free pop" in the interstellar environment. However, most researchers believe that the end is nigh. "The Heliosheath is 3 to 4 billion km thick," stone estimates. "This means that we are five years."
There are plenty of energy for the rest of the trip. Both travelers are excited by the radioactive decay of a heat source plutonium 238. Keep these critical subsystems running until at least 2020.
Then he says "Voyager our silent are the stars Ambassador."
Each sample is a golden record famous, literally, a gold coated copper equipped phonograph record. It contains 118 photos of the Earth; 90 Minutes world's largest music; an audio essay titled sounds of Earth (with everything from splashing mud to barking dogs to a roaring Saturn 5 liftoff). Greetings in 55 human languages and a whale language; The brain waves of a young woman in love; and greetings from the Secretary-General of the United Nations. A team led by Carl Sagan created the record as a message to possible extraterrestrial civilizations that can occur to the probe.
"A billion years from now, when everything has crumbled if the continents have changed beyond recognition and unimaginable changes our species on Earth, which we've ever done in dust, or extinct, the Voyager record will speak for us" wrote in an introduction to a version of the record Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.
Some people note that the chance that foreigners find that golden is fantastic record. The Voyager probes are another star for about 40,000 years within a few light years. What are the advantages of making contact in such circumstances?
On the other hand, are developing what the chances of a race of primates to sentience, to send development of space and the sound of barking dogs in the cosmos?
In fact, expect the unexpected.
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
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