September 12, 2013 at 22:58Voyager 1 left the solar system (this time for sure)
He became the first starship in the history of mankind on August 25, 2012, but scientists are convinced of this only now.
Last August, the sensors of the device for the first time recorded a change in the intensity of the plasma flow around the ship. At that time, there was too little data to speak of going beyond the heliopause — the boundary where the near-solar “bubble” of particles emanating from the Sun collides with a stream of interstellar particles. Scientists have suggested that Voyager 1 is somewhere on the border.
The new conditions in which the device has been since August 2012 were in many ways suitable for those that could be called an interstellar medium, but there are no devices on the probe that could be verified for sure.
The incident helped - a flash in the Sun, which occurred in March 2012. The solar wind can have a speed from 300 km / s to 1200 km / s, but its wave caught Voyager 1 only after 13 months. The flow of solar plasma allowed us to check the environment in which the vehicle was moving, and it turned out that it was bathing in a plasma stream that exceeded 40 times the level that was ever observed during its flight.
This case confirmed the scientists' assumptions that Voyager-1 ended up in interstellar space. And indeed it was really lucky that a gust of solar wind blew exactly “in the tail”, when it was so necessary for rechecking.
It is assumed that the probe will be able to maintain functionality even before 2020. Then he will continue the journey in eternal silence. After 40 thousand years, it will fly at a distance of 1.6 light years past the star Gliese 445, its further path is difficult to predict.
I think the event of August 25, 2012 will be a date comparable in importance to humanity from October 4, 1957.
Publication in the journal Science
P.S. On the topic: " White cane of caliber 7.62 mm "
Last August, the sensors of the device for the first time recorded a change in the intensity of the plasma flow around the ship. At that time, there was too little data to speak of going beyond the heliopause — the boundary where the near-solar “bubble” of particles emanating from the Sun collides with a stream of interstellar particles. Scientists have suggested that Voyager 1 is somewhere on the border.
The new conditions in which the device has been since August 2012 were in many ways suitable for those that could be called an interstellar medium, but there are no devices on the probe that could be verified for sure.
The incident helped - a flash in the Sun, which occurred in March 2012. The solar wind can have a speed from 300 km / s to 1200 km / s, but its wave caught Voyager 1 only after 13 months. The flow of solar plasma allowed us to check the environment in which the vehicle was moving, and it turned out that it was bathing in a plasma stream that exceeded 40 times the level that was ever observed during its flight.
This case confirmed the scientists' assumptions that Voyager-1 ended up in interstellar space. And indeed it was really lucky that a gust of solar wind blew exactly “in the tail”, when it was so necessary for rechecking.
It is assumed that the probe will be able to maintain functionality even before 2020. Then he will continue the journey in eternal silence. After 40 thousand years, it will fly at a distance of 1.6 light years past the star Gliese 445, its further path is difficult to predict.
I think the event of August 25, 2012 will be a date comparable in importance to humanity from October 4, 1957.
Publication in the journal Science
P.S. On the topic: " White cane of caliber 7.62 mm "