Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
NASA’S VOYAGER 1, launched in 1977, appears to be on the verge of becoming the first spacecraft to leave the solar system and begin a new journey in outer space, experts say.
Scientists are intrigued by the recent increase in cosmic rays hitting the spacecraft, which for decades has snapped images of the Earth and other planets in the solar system as it makes its long journey into outer space.
“The latest data from Voyager 1 indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing quickly,” said a statement from Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
“This is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system’s final frontier.”
These cosmic rays, which are high energy particles that are accelerated to near-light speed by distant supernovas and black holes, have been bombarding the spacecraft with greater frequency, NASA said.
The galactic cosmic rays encountered by Voyager 1 increased about 25 percent from January 2009 to January 2012.
“More recently, however, we have seen a very rapid escalation in that part of the energy spectrum. Beginning on 7 May 2012, the cosmic ray hits have increased five percent in a week and nine percent in a month,” he said.
Those signals could mean that Voyager is “on the verge of a breakthrough 18 billion kilometers from Earth,” NASA said.
Researchers had previously said they expected Voyager 1 would leave the solar system and enter interstellar space — between the end of the Sun’s influence and the next star system — at some point in the next two years.
NASA has described Voyager 1 and its companion Voyager 2 — now more than 9.1 billion miles (14.7 billion kilometers) away from the Sun — as “the two most distant active representatives of humanity and its desire to explore.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Fascinating stuff, I hope it will keep sending telemetry for a while yet.
In 250 years it will meet the Starship Enterprise and turn into a monster.
Good old V’ger.
And boldly go, where no man has ever gone before
There’s an idea for where we should put Bertie…..
Future Headline: ‘First contact with new Earth-like planet.’
First comment on the article: “Bet Enda Kenny will suck up to them.”
Please stop. :(
It’s allowed when it’s Birtie!
Still not far enough..
don’t taint this with them shitheads.
Amazing, after all these years still going strong!!
Boldly going where no man has gone before……
I just replied the same comment :)
Them Duracell batteries really do keep going eh!!
Nuclear battery’s .
We forgot to put Phil Hogan on it. First pig in outer space….
Almost made it to the end there….
Voyager 1 has been in operation for nearly 35 years since it’s launch. It is travelling at a rate of 17 Kilometres per second. Radio signals transmitted from it currently take 16 hours to reach earth. In 40,000 years time it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445. At its current velocity it will take it 14,000 years to travel 1 light year.
Will it go anywhere near Uranus? :-)
To be blunt, it already has….
Ha ha John,nChris has put a blunt to Uranus
How much fuel was on board? Or whats keeping it going now? Mad that they’re still getting data fromnIt
The handy thing about satellites like this is that very little fuel is needed. Once it’s set on its way at the required velocity the engines can switch off and the craft just keeps going. Some fuel will be used to help the craft get close to or navigate past planets, but even then the craft can use the gravity of a planet to get a ‘boost’ in velocity and go even faster.
So amazing. Just mind blowing!!
If the Klingons get their hands on this God help us all!!!
Safe. Klingons live in the other direction
It’s them feckin romulans are the problem lads
The Borg are the scary ones……resistance is futile……
Nah, you can just turn them off and then on again
Sloppy work with the photo TheJournal.ie…Ah yeah just take a random shot of a Galaxy (Not a solar system) and throw it in there. Also Janeway was a woman…so your photo caption makes no sense. Just sayin…
The photo comes from a NASA video showing all the places that Voyager has travelled to. There weren’t any really grabbing photographs of Voyager itself or anything else that would probably illustrate the scope of what it’s doing – unsurprisingly – so we went with that one. And yes, we know Janeway is a woman. The caption was a play on the the intro to Star Trek TOS where it said that its mission was to ‘boldly go where no man has gone before’, by pointing out that Janeway and Voyager have gone further than most.
Guys its either “Kathryn”, “Captain Janeway” or “Admiral Janeway” You can’t call her just “janeway” unless you’re an enemy! Jesus!
Also Janeway, sorry Paddy, Kathryn, was the captain of the USS Voyager.
It will get so far and then crash bang clunk into a wall …. ,it will be just like the Truman show and it will dawn on us that planet earth is just one big zoo/nature reserve/national park in space for all to view… all others that is just one:)
pretty stunning alright, for something built in 1977, maybe that why its reliable. be interesting to see what’s the next stage (or will there be) of exploring space craft. surely we could now build something much faster these days…. imagine sticking rtg powered drives in things when we were still using leaded petrol. and Hilman hunters…
Just don’t make them like they used too
Wow, amazing!
More info here – http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/index.html
Great link, cheers, Found this on it
Both Voyager spacecrafts carry a greeting to any form of life, should that be encountered. The message is carried by a phonograph record – -a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages.
I remember this was on BBC’s Blue Peter at the time. They showed some of the pics and played some of the sounds and music. They also showed the plaque that is attached to the outside of the spacecraft that shows a naked man and woman, the man’s hand raised up as a sign of greeting.
Remember that to. It also contains directions to earth as well. Seem to remember much discussion if that was a good idea in case Voyager met unfriendly little green men. Those were the days.
deadly
I remember that on Blue Peter too! Wasn’t aliens finding the crashed voyager and following the directions the premise of some hokey sic-fi flick or did I dream that? Or Dr. Who? Remarkable it’s still going strong, reminds me of the Mars rover :(
http://xkcd.com/695/
There’s the link to everything thats on the record http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html
I’m secretly hoping that just as they celebrate it leaving we suddenly notice a tiny probe entering the solar system from the opposite side :)
Voyager completely blows my mind. It set off when I was 6 yrs old!! I have a 7yr old daughter and it will probably still be traveling when she has a daughter…hope it’s not lonely!
So the answer to the title’s question would be yes then. Go Voyager, go! http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap031120.html
EPIC! This beats the moon landing for me.
Some pilot
have your say