National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced on Thursday that the
Voyager 1 space craft has become the first man-made object to leave the solar
system and enter the interstellar space.
There are
reports that the Voyager 1 had left the Solar System since March, 2012 but
there was no way to confirm the development because of a broken equipment that
senses plasma density on the space craft.
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| Voyager 1. Image: NASA |
The
difference between the Solar System and the interstellar space is that the
solar system is hot and has a low density while the interstellar space is cold
and has a high density. The instrument (plasma sensor) to sense it has been
broken since 1980, three years after the launch of the spacecraft.
However, new
data has indicated that the Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year
through plasma, or ionized gas.
“Now that we
have new key data, we believe this is mankind’s historic leap into interstellar
space,” Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute
of Technology said.
“The Voyager
team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we
can now answer the question we’ve all been asking –‘Are we there yet?’ Yes, we
are.”
The Voyager 1
which travels at a speed of 38,000km/hr is presently about 19 billion
kilometres from our sun. On the 9th of April, 2012, Voyager 1’s plasma wave
instrument detected the movement of the spacecraft in plasma. The oscillations
indicated that plasma round the spacecraft was more than 40 times than what
should be experienced in the outer layer of Heliosphere.
However,
August 25, 2012 is the generally accepted date for the arrival of Voyager 1
into interstellar space. It is expected that more details will be available
if/when Voyager 2 goes through the same stage.
Voyager 1 and
2 were both launched 16 days apart in 1977. Voyager 2 was launched first and is
still the oldest operating spacecraft. It is at an estimated distance of 15
billion kilometres away from our sun.
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NASA’s Voyager 1 becomes first man-made object outside the solar system