.- Large galaxies grow ceased 7,000 million years ago .-
April 28, 2011: Tuesday, May 10, 2011
After more than 30 years after he left Earth, the twin Voyager spacecraft (Voyager, in English), NASA, found in limits of the solar system. Not only are there, but also still in operation. And every day sent back to Earth a message to the scientists, is disturbing and exciting.
"It's strange," says Ed Stone of Caltech, who is Voyager project scientist since 1972. "Voyager 1 and 2 have a natural talent for making discoveries. "
Today, April 28, 2011, NASA gave a press conference in which he reflected on the achievements of the Voyager mission, and provided an overview of what to expect to the probes as they prepare to enter the realm of the Milky Way. Click to view a video (in English) about the incredible journey of the Voyager probes to the edge of the solar system. The adventure began in the late 1970's when the probes took advantage of a rare alignment of the outer planets to start his Grand Tour. Voyager 1 visited Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. (Voyager 2 is still the only probe that has visited Uranus and Neptune.)
When asked what were the major findings of these meetings, Stone pauses, not because he lacks material to answer, but because it overwhelms the number of possible answers. "It's hard to choose," he says. 
The Stone gave partial list includes the discovery of volcanoes on Io (a moon of Jupiter), evidence of an ocean beneath the frozen surface of Europa, evidence of methane rain Titan (a moon of Saturn), the erratically tilted magnetic poles of Uranus and Neptune, ice geysers on Triton (a moon of Neptune), planetary winds are faster and faster the further away they are from the Sun " Each of these discoveries changed the way we had of other worlds, "says Stone.
In 1980, Voyager 1 used Saturn's gravity to propel, as launched by a slingshot out of the plane of the solar system. In 1989, Voyager 2 used a similar tactic with Neptune. Both probes set its course towards the vacuum.Navigate to the gap seems being an event in which there is little activity, but the discoveries continued.
The heliosphere represented in his kitchen sink. [
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That bubble really exists. The researchers call the "heliosphere", and has a huge size. Comprised of solar plasma and magnetic fields, the heliosphere is about three times wider than the orbit of Pluto. Every planet, asteroid, spacecraft and way of life that belongs to our solar system is inside. More ] Stone explained by comparing it to the sink to wash dishes in the kitchen. "Open the key," he says. "The point where the jet of water falls in the pool, that's the sun, and the thin layer of water flowing radially outward from that point is the solar wind. Notice how the sun seems to 'inflate a bubble' around ".
The Voyagers are trying to escape, but are not yet there. To give an idea of \u200b\u200bthe location where found, Stone returns to the sink to wash dishes in the kitchen: "As the water expands (or solar wind), it becomes increasingly thin and fails to exercise significant pressure. abruptly, forming a turbulent ring and slow. This outer ring is the heliosheath: here is where Now Voyager. "
The heliosheath is a very strange place, filled with a" foam "magnet with any other spacecraft has been encountered before, and where echo flashes of low-frequency radio have only been heard in the outer reaches of the solar system, a place so far from home that the Sun is just a tiny point of light.
"The heliosheath is, in many ways, as predicted by our models," says Stone.
Voyager probes are in the heliosheath. [
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There is still plenty of energy to the rest of the trip. Both Voyagers get their energy from the decay of a thermal source of plutonium 238. This will allow the sub-systems continue to function until at least 2020. In June 2010, Voyager 1 sent a transmission to Earth containing an amazing number: zero. That is the solar wind radial velocity at the site where the probe is now. Nobody thinks that means that the solar wind is stopped, maybe just move in another direction. But where? Voyager 1 is trying to decipher through a series of maneuvers that mimic a weather vane, in which changes direction trying to follow the local direction of the breeze. It seems that the old spacecraft still has some moves to make. No one knows yet exactly how many miles will walk the Voyager to get rid of the heliosphere and into interstellar space. However, most researchers believe is very close. "The heliosheath has a thickness of 5 to 6 billion kilometers (3 to 4 billion miles), according to estimates Stone. "That means we will leave it in about five years."
After that, he says, "the Voyager probes will be our silent ambassadors to the stars."
El Disco de Oro is located on board the Voyager. [
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Each probe, as is well known, is carrying a gold record, literally, that is, a phonograph record made of copper and gold plated. Containing 118 photographs of the Earth, 90 minutes from the world's best music, a sound test called Sounds of the Earth (with very different sounds ranging from bubbling mud deposits up to a barking dog or the thunderous launch of the Saturn 5) , greetings in 55 human languages \u200b\u200band one whale language, the brain waves of a young woman in love, and a greeting the Secretary General of the Organization of the United Nations. A team that was led by Carl Sagan, drew up these recordings as a message to extraterrestrial civilizations that may run into the spacecraft. "A thousand million years, when everything we've built on earth has been turned to dust when the continents have changed beyond all recognition and our species has been altered in ways unimaginable or allowed to lapse, the records that are on board the Voyager spacecraft will speak for us, "wrote Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan in the introduction of the CD disc. Some people do notar que la probabilidad de que alienígenas encuentren el Disco de Oro es fantásticamente pequeña. Las sondas Voyager no se acercarán ni a unos pocos años luz de otra estrella durante los siguientes 40.000 años. ¿Cuáles son las probabilidades de hacer contacto en esas circunstancias?
En efecto, hay que esperar lo inesperado.
Ciencia@NASA
GRUPO GABIE
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