On August 25, 2012 Voyager 1 left our known universe and passed into interstellar space. NASA recently received data from Voyager that for the past year it had been traveling through an ionized gas zone present in the space between solar systems. Since Voyager 1’s plasma sensor broke in the 1980s scientist calculated the emergence into interstellar space by using a burst of solar winds from our sun and magnetic field to mathematically compute the location of the probe. These winds erupted from our Sun in mid March 2012, and took approximately 13 months to reach Voyager. When the winds came in contact with her, the plasma field began to “vibrate like a violin string”. The pitch of the solar waves from this vibration allowed scientist to determine the density of the space around Voyager. This was seen to be 40 times the density of Heliosphere, or outer limits of our solar system. According to Don Gurnett and the plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. “”We literally jumped out of our seats when we saw these oscillat
ions in our data — they showed us the spacecraft was in an entirely new region, comparable to what was expected in interstellar space, and totally different than in the solar bubble,” Gurnett said. “Clearly we had passed through the heliopause, which is the long-hypothesized boundary between the solar plasma and the interstellar plasma.”
“Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. “Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey.”
As we reach out amongst the stars, maybe one day we will find new life and new civilizations. Till then we will look to the skies with wonder and imagination.
All information and photos obtained from www.nasa.gov. Stardate calculated by http://trekguide.com/Stardates.htm
