Photo: NASA
A little over 40 years ago, humanity sent its hopes and dreams to the stars, stamped on 12-inch gold-plated copper disks. The ships carrying the disks were called Voyager 1 and 2.
For some reason, Voyager 2 departed Earth 16 days before its Voyager 1 sibling, on August 20, 1977. Both of them were initially heading pretty much in the same general direction, on a path towards Jupiter and Saturn.
A few decades and several billion kilometers after the 1977 launch, the two spaceships have grown apart.
Voyager 1 left the influence of our solar system’s sun in 2012 and entered what astronomers generally consider interstellar space, leaving its earlier-launched brother to roam the solar system.
But not for long. Voyager 2 will be leaving the neighborhood sometime in the near future as well. NASA announced last week the spaceship has detected an increase in fast-moving particles that originate outside the solar system, the same type of particles Voyager 1 found before passing the threshold.
In the first ship’s case, it took three months between the time these rays were first detected to the moment it passed the boundary of the Sun’s heliosphere, so probably a similar time would be needed for Voyager 2 to follow it as well.
"We're seeing a change in the environment around Voyager 2, there's no doubt about that," said Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone.
"We're going to learn a lot in the coming months, but we still don't know when we'll reach the heliopause. We're not there yet -- that's one thing I can say with confidence."
The last contact with the farthest of the two ships took place last December. After 37 years of inactivity, NASA engineers were able to fire up Voyager 1's engines so that its antenna points at our planet. No word on a similar maneuver for the Voyager 2 yet.
A few decades and several billion kilometers after the 1977 launch, the two spaceships have grown apart.
Voyager 1 left the influence of our solar system’s sun in 2012 and entered what astronomers generally consider interstellar space, leaving its earlier-launched brother to roam the solar system.
But not for long. Voyager 2 will be leaving the neighborhood sometime in the near future as well. NASA announced last week the spaceship has detected an increase in fast-moving particles that originate outside the solar system, the same type of particles Voyager 1 found before passing the threshold.
In the first ship’s case, it took three months between the time these rays were first detected to the moment it passed the boundary of the Sun’s heliosphere, so probably a similar time would be needed for Voyager 2 to follow it as well.
"We're seeing a change in the environment around Voyager 2, there's no doubt about that," said Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone.
"We're going to learn a lot in the coming months, but we still don't know when we'll reach the heliopause. We're not there yet -- that's one thing I can say with confidence."
The last contact with the farthest of the two ships took place last December. After 37 years of inactivity, NASA engineers were able to fire up Voyager 1's engines so that its antenna points at our planet. No word on a similar maneuver for the Voyager 2 yet.
Google News