Man made object which exited solar system

With recent news that “Voyager 1” left the solar heliosphere and entered the interstellar space is very interesting. It is very exciting to hear that a “manmade” object had travelled more than 21 billion KM away from the earth. Recently NASA scientists officially announced that Voyager I had entered the interstellar medium[ISM]. Interstellar region is the region which is between stars, containing ions, dust, cosmic rays. Scientists confirmed this through the density of plasma present in the path where currently the Voyager 1 is travelling. Plasma consists of charged particles and is more prevalent in the extreme cold of interstellar space than in the hot bubble of solar wind that permeates the solar system Though the Plasma measuring equipment inside the voyager 1 became defunct some 30 years ago, solar flare from the sun acted as “Blessing in Disguise” for the scientists. Solar flares are ejected often from the sun during solar cycle which happens every 11 years. In Aug 2012, When Voyager I encountered solar flare in ISM which contained high density Plasma, it echoed back to the base station some unknown high spike sound. With this huge spike of sound, NASA scientists concluded that Voyager 1 had left the solar system.

The two Voyager probes, which were launched in 1977 to study the outer planets of the solar system especially the gaseous planets like Jupiter, Saturn. Initially the voyager I was intended for just 5 years, but thanks to its reprogramming capabilities from earth made it survive more than 36 years and still functioning. Most iconic image Voyager 1 captured was presumed to be “Pale Blue Dot”. When Voyager was some 4 billion miles away from earth completing all its mission objectives, Carl Sagan the astrophysics professor (who spearheaded the project) encouraged NASA to picture the earth from that distance. Voyager 1 photographed the earth which showed earth as tiny dot of 0.12 pixels in size against vast space in background. 

Voyager 1 data functions operate with onboard memory of 66Kilobytes, which is state of art in 1977.In contrast to this, current lower end iPhone comes with 16 gigabytes of memory (a gigabyte is 1 million kilobytes), roughly 240,000 times more powerful. When Voyager 1 was launched, scientists predicted that the magnetic field of sun ends by few hundred million miles, but when voyager was travelling further and further they found it is between 10 billion and 16 billion miles.

Voyager 1 also contains gold phonographic records etched with music, greetings, sounds and images from Earth. These records are sent with intention that in future if any intelligent alien species may discover it and feel that some life is there beyond few billion miles away.Indians also should feel proud for the record as it contained the Indian classical music, the raga, Jaat Kahan Ho, sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar.

Though Voyager I power source is expected to get completely exhausted by 2025, it may still reach nearby star which is 40,000 billions away. Also chances are there that it orbit at the center of the galaxy. Apart from outer planet space mission like voyager, NASA also  launched a spacecraft namely “New Horizons” to study the Pluto in 2006. It is still travelling and some 10AU        from Pluto. In future the “New Horizons” may accomplish same feat i.e. exiting the solar heliosphere. Currently “New Horizon is travelling at the speed of 15Km/s. But Voyager rocket technology which is older in comparison to current standards travels more speed than “New Horizons” at 17Km/s. This speed it achieved because of the gravitational push it got from Saturn when it was closely inspecting the Saturn.

Voyager, 11 Billion Miles Later: Photos from the Depths of Our Solar System
http://science.time.com/2012/12/07/voyager-6-billion-miles-later-photos-from-the-depths-of-our-solar-system/photo/the-rings-of-jupiter-photographed-by-voyager-2-1979/#ixzz2fe5MMAqf

Useful Video: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid760102458001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAAGhEzEA~,gimxaULoaz9FgSvQK3Fpq2dT5uZsLeMs&bctid=2513635033001

Courtesy: Wikipedia,other science magazines