Pictures on left are courtesy NASA
NASA's Voyager 1 is about to leave the solar system. Scientists predict this will happen in as little as three months to as long as two years. However it is getting farther and farther away from Earth!
Voyager 1 was launched 35 years ago as an unmanned spacecraft to go explore. If Voyager 1 does make it, it will be the first manmade object to leave the solar system and enter "interstellar space."
According to scientists at NASA, Voyager 1 is currently at the fringes of the solar system, thought to be the last layer before the beginning of the space between stars. NASA says it has reached a "magnetic highway" which you can see on the left-hand-side of those images.
Here are some fun and interesting stats on Voyager 1:
- It was launched in 1977
- It is 11 billion miles away from Earth
- It takes radio signals 17 hours from Voyager 1 to reach Earth, traveling at the speed of light
To get technical, the lead Voyager scientist Ed Stone explains Voyager 1 is in an area where "magnetic field lines from the sun are connecting with magnetic field lines from interstellar space."
"It's like a highway, letting particles in and out," - Stone. He says the phenomenon is causing highly energetic particles from distant supernova explosions and other cosmic events to zoom inside the solar system, while less-energetic solar particles exit.
This is a fairly unknown lingo to me, as I'm not too familiar with how the solar system and interstellar space works. However I find it fascinating!
-Meteorologist Steve Glazier
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