By ANNA CODUTTI Scene Writer on Sep 12, 2013, at 1:58 PM Updated on 9/12 at 2:08 PM
PRAIRIE NERDS
The master of Japanese animation is putting his pencils away. Hayao Miyazaki on Friday announced he’s retiring from feature ...
A group of German researchers trapped a beam of light energy in a crystal for about a minute - nearly four times higher ...
British phenom Neil Gaiman - novelist, occasional and exceptional 'Doctor Who' writer and, more recently, video game developer ...
CONTACT THE BLOGGER
918-581-8327
Email
Readings from Voyager 1 help scientists get an accurate picture of what the edge of the solar system is like. NASA.gov
Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is now nearly 12 billion miles from the sun and exploring interstellar space. Proof of the milestone comes in a study released Thursday by the journal Science.
NASA got folks excited with this tweet:
The announcement came that Voyager had entered interstellar space -- on Aug. 25, 2012. But many started reporting after the news that Voyager had exited the solar system, which is a sticky wicket for scientists who are using the data from the spacecraft to help them understand whether it's really left the proverbial building.
"We have been cautious because we're dealing with one of the most important milestones in the history of exploration," said Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "Only now do we have the data -- and the analysis -- we needed."
NASA tried to clear up the semantics with another tweet:
This doesn't make it any less of a milestone. For anything created by humankind to get as far as 12 billion miles from the sun is nothing short of miraculous. And nerds worldwide, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lamar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Carl Sagan's son and others recorded a message to celebrate the monumental occasion.
Unfortunately, there's an expiration date on the Voyager project. Given the estimated lifetime of the plutonium battery aboard Voyager 1, its last signals should be heard on Earth around 2025, Stone said. But in the next dozen years, it should be exciting for scientists to be able to study data and tell us what it's like at the edge and outside of our solar system.
If you want to read more about the science and data, go to the source:
NASA.gov.
Do you have a topic you would like Prairie Nerds to address? Let us know at prairienerds@tulsaworld.com.
Follow Prairie Nerds on Twitter. Like Prairie Nerds on Facebook.
SCENE: Visit the home to all things food, movies, TV, music and local entertainment.
