September 12, 2013

NASA: Voyager 1 Reaches Interstellar Space

Voyager 1 is the first man-made object to reach interstellar space, NASA has been able to confirm, based on measurements of the ionized gas that the spaceship travels through.

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Voyager 1 is the first man-made object to reach interstellar space, NASA has been able to confirm, based on measurements of the ionized gas that the spaceship travels through. It has been unclear for over a year whether Voyager 1 had yet reached this milestone.

The evidence was published today in the journal Science by a team led by Don Gurnett of the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

Voyager 1, along with its twin, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977.

Read more here.

For a sound file of the oscillations detected by Voyager in interstellar space, animations and other information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/interstellarvoyager/ .

The most counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

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