Voyager 1 Hears a Cosmic Hum that Could Mean Something - The Cosmic Companion May 12, 2021
Just outside our solar system, a faint signal seen by Voyager 1 could reveal secrets of interstellar space.
Voyager 1 hears a cosmic hum from just beyond the Solar System. What can this signal tell us about the nature of interstellar space?
In September 1977, Voyager 1 was launched to space on a journey to visit Jupiter and Saturn, before heading out to the stars. NASA’s robotic explorer reached the heliopause — leaving the solar system (by one major standard) — in 2012.
Now, a new study focused on a hum heard by the intrepid space shows this overlooked signal could tell us a great deal about the distant void lying outside our solar system.
Voyager 1 is now over 14 billion kilometers from Earth, soaring through a diffuse mixture of particles and gas called the interstellar medium. This hum, recorded since 2017, is thought to be the result of plasma waves in this cosmic soup.
Read more: https://thecosmiccompanion.net/voyager-1-hears-a-cosmic-hum-that-could-mean-something
Check out the amazing lineup of guests coming up on Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion!
This week: Dr. Jack Hughes, astrophysicist at Rutgers University, discussing new findings about supernovae.
May 18 (s4/e20): NASA’s Scott Lambros, Instrument Systems Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope, tells us about this remarkable observatory.
May 25 (s4/e21): The Interstellar probe – exploring space between the stars with Dr. Elena Provornikova from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
June 1 (s4/e22): Using computer modeling to peer inside the atmosphere of Saturn with Dr. Sabine Stanley of Johns Hopkins University.
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