Voyager 1 detects interstellar gas hum in the vacuum of space

The spacecraft that NASA sent to space ago 44 years, Voyager 1, wearing a Gold Record created by a committee chaired by Professor Carl Sagan, detected the drone of interstellar gas.

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Voyager 1 , one of the two ships that the POT posted ago 44 years into interstellar space and that is already the object made by the human being that has gone the furthest, it continues advancing towards infinity and making surprising discoveries, such as the Interstellar gas hum .

On 2012, the spacecraft crossed the border of the Solar System (heliosphere) and passed through the heliopause, the point at which the solar wind meets the stellar wind of other stars and has since travels through interstellar space.

Now to almost 12, They have detected the hum of interstellar gas (plasma waves). Details of the research, conducted by scientists at Cornell University (New York) have been published this week in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Stella Koch Ocker , a Cornell astronomy doctoral student and author of the finding, describes the hum as “very faint and monotonous, because it is in a narrow frequency bandwidth. We are detecting the faint and persistent hum of interstellar gas. ”

Cornell researchers believe the finding will help scientists understand how the interstellar medium interacts with the solar wind and how the protective bubble of the heliosphere is shaped and modified by the environment.

This finding, which is itself scientifically relevant, has only done confirm the worth of this historic probe that was launched in September 1977 and that, after passing through Jupiter (in 1980) and by Saturn (late 1980) to 61. 903 kilometers per hour, it is still operational and sending data.

The investigation explains that upon entering interstellar space, the plane wave system sma of the spacecraft detected disturbances in the gas but, between those eruptions – caused by our own Sun – the researchers discovered a constant and persistent signal produced by the tenuous almost vacuum of space.

“The interstellar medium is like a calm or soft rain. In the case of a solar flare, it is like detecting a lightning bolt in a thunderstorm and then it returns to the light rain, ”explains lead author James Cordes, George Feldstein (A&S) Professor of Astronomy.

The authors of the finding believe that there is more low-level activity in interstellar gas than previously thought, which will allow researchers to track the spatial distribution of the plasma, that is, when it is not being disturbed by solar flares.

Therefore, for Cornell researcher Shami Chatterjee it is essential to continuously monitor the density of interstellar space: “We have never had the opportunity to evaluate it. Now we know that we don’t need a random event related to the sun to measure interstellar plasma. ”

Voyager 1, which left Earth with a Gold Record created by a committee chaired by Cornell Professor Carl Sagan , and equipped with mid-year technology 70, “is a gift from engineering to science. It is a testament to the incredible journey of Voyager ”, concludes Ocker.

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