Saturday, September 14, 2013

Voyager from Earth and the Sound of Space

Voyager has been doing some cool stuff since it crossed into interstellar space in August. NASA and JLP confirmed the start of Voyager 1's interstellar journey earlier this week, which, thus far, hasn't happened before (so, it seems like Voyager *really* has left the solar system).

The first image I have for you is Voyager as seen from Earth. That little blue dot is none other than the "little probe that could," located some 18.5- billion kilometers (11.5-billion miles) away from the pale blue dot (as of Feb. 21, 2013 when this image was taken). That little blue smug is Voyager's radio signal and required the use of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), which is a 8,000 km (5,000 mi) wide telescope that works using astronomical interferometry. This process links telescopes together so they act as one, much larger, much more powerful, and much more sensitive telescope so astronomers can see more detail.

Pictures, Videos, references, sources, and further reading can be found here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/voyager-from-earth-and-the-sound-of-space/

No comments:

Post a Comment