After 28 years the Voyager 1 space probe is still making its’ way out to the stars.. what’s more amazing is its’ still sending back useful data and will likely continue to do so for another 15 years at least!
According to the report above and papers submitted to many journals, scientists now agree that Voyager 1 cross the barrier between our solar system and the “in between” area between our solar system and interstellar space beyond. This barrier is known as the “termination shock” because it is the point where the solar wind decreases abruptly in speed due to the pressure of the interstellar space pushing against it. It’s exactly like the “sonic barrier” that planes break through.
Amazingly, scientists heard that “sonic boom” on December 16, 2004 amongst the faint crackle of transmissions from Voyager 1.
Just think… a little probe, no bigger than a bus… hurtling through space.
It’s millions of miles away from us… and yet, just like that.. like breaking through a thin wall… it passed through an invisible barrier.. and we Heard it!
It just boggles the mind.
Apparently it will only take Voyager 1 8-10 years to pass through this middle region known as the “HelioSheath” (Sun – Shield). Once it breaks through no one knows what will happen… but amazingly, we will still be able to use our radio telescopes here on Earth to communicate with and squeeze information from Voyager as it continues to go where no Human has ever gone before.
Yes, this is extremely cool…even for someone like me who isn’t really all reved up about space exploration – at least not the type involving human passengers and human colonization of Mars, etc.
Everything to do with the concepts of an expanding universe, the big bang and the inexplicable mathematical precision of it all is too much for my three diminitional understanding of matter and life in general. Every scientific discovery I hear of only brings more questions. What the heck was there before the Bang, anyway?
All matter compressed into a mass the size of a golfball? How’d it get there? The universe going on forever and expanding eternally? Whoa, what’s out there now beyond the universe, how can it be limitless? Please, somebody, help my poor befuddled confused brain.