Voyager 1 Riding an Interstellar Tsunami Wave Beyond the Solar System
Ana Verayo | | Dec 18, 2014 09:59 AM EST |
(Photo : NASA/JPL) This view of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1. This image was taken through color filters and recombined to produce the color image.
Scientists revealed that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is now at the outer reaches of the solar system and has entered deep interstellar space.
The probe is now experiencing what scientists call a "tsunami wave," making it an extremely bumpy ride.
The first wave was experienced by Voyager 1 earlier this year and lasted a long time.It's the longest wave ever detected from space.
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These waves are produced when the sun or any star emits solar winds from coronal mass ejections. It consist of a pressure wave that collides with other interstellar plasma and sends shock waves throughout deep space via an interstellar medium.
These shock waves were encountered by Voyager 1 after leaving the solar system two years ago. These waves were apparently evidence needed to confirm the probe had left the solar system and heliosphere. The heliosphere is a bubble produced by solar wind from the sun located in the outer boundaries of the solar system.
To date, the solar wave detected by Voyager 1 occurred February and is still occurring based on magnetic field data that arrived on Earth in November.
This tsunami wave is causing ionized gas to resonate or vibrate, creating ripples through space, according to Ed Stone from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
This current interstellar tsunami wave has travelled a quarter of a billion miles. Gurnett believes cosmic tsunami waves can travel into space for a hundred astronomical units or more. There is no current information when these waves fade away.
One astronomical unit is equal to 93 million miles, which is equivalent to the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun. Right now, Voyager 1 is about 130 astronomical units from the Sun or 12 billion miles away.
Its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, is currently some 109 astronomical units away from the Sun and is also approaching the solar sytem's heliosphere. Scientists believe Voyager 2 will cross the heliosphere in two years.
Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977. Both probes have already done flybys of Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 performed flybys of Uranus and Neptune.
TagsVoyager 1 Already Beyond Our Solar System Riding an Interstellar Tsunami Wave, voyager 1, voyager 2, NASA, cosmic interstellar tsunami wave voyager 1
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