Okay, I have been so excited to post this news for a long time now. I have been following this story closely for over a year, as it came closer and closer to being official. After months of speculation and poring over the data, chief scientists confirmed today via Science that Voyager I has offically entered intersteller space!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24026153
News article in case you can't open up the journal.
There has been some speculation and debate ongoing over the exact timing this would take place, but the consensus is that the information verifies Voyager I has entered the new frontier (as of August 2012). This may not seem like breaking news to some folks, but I couldn't be more excited, and wish to offer congratulations to NASA and the entire Voyager team and everyone behind the scenes that made this possible. It is a pretty momentus feat.
36 years and 19 billion kms later, and still going. What an amazing accomplishment for a spacecraft built at the dawn of the technological age! Now I might not have been around when the Voyager program was setting out, but it has always truly fascinated me. Such marvels and feats of discovery about something we really know so little about.
Space remains such an unknown, and for this little piece of human engineering to have crossed out of our solar system is really spectacular. If you stop and think for a minute about it - the distances travelled, the frontiers crossed, and the information this little probe is providing - it is really awe inspiring. It really kinda makes you think about the bigger picture of civilisation and puts our petty squabbles into perspective. I am not sure if at some time in history we will ever repeat that drive and collaboration to explore like it was during the era of the space race, but I really do hope we can return to it some day.
As a scientist, as an engineer, a humbled person, and just a massive all-around sci-fi nerd with an explorer's heart, this really makes me so happy. Keep on truckin' V-Ger.
