{"id":174,"date":"2010-12-15T01:36:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T23:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/?p=174"},"modified":"2012-08-18T09:07:47","modified_gmt":"2012-08-18T07:07:47","slug":"greetings-from-the-outer-solar-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/?p=174","title":{"rendered":"Greetings from the outer Solar System"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_179\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/spacecraft.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[174]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-179\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-179\" title=\"Voyager Spacecraft\" src=\"http:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/spacecraft-150x149.jpg\" alt=\"Voyager Spacecraft\" width=\"150\" height=\"149\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-179\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Voyager 1<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A hearty &#8220;Well done!&#8221; to an old traveler &#8211; the US spacecraft <strong>Voyager 1<\/strong>: NASA has confirmed today, that the\u00a0space probe\u00a0has reached a point in the outer solar system where the effects of the solar wind are no longer measurable (it actually reached that point in June but the results got <a href=\"http:\/\/solarsystem.nasa.gov\/news\/display.cfm?News_ID=36121\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed <\/a>today).<\/p>\n<p>At a current distance of unbelievable 10.8 billion miles from the sun, this makes her and her sister ship <strong>Voyager 2<\/strong> the two man-made items that had gone farther and deeper into space than any other spacecraft or probe has ever done (and there is not much to suggest that they will have to share that title any time soon with any other space\u00a0 probe).<\/p>\n<h1>Distances<\/h1>\n<p>Speaking of distances, let&#8217;s bring things into perspective: in general, astronomy deals with huge distances and astronomers have come to use different measurements than miles or kilometers because the numbers grow far to large. Instead, astronomical distances are measured in really &#8220;astronomical&#8221; units (you will see: its a play of words):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Earth is about 150 Million Kilometers away from the Sun &#8211; in numbers: 150.000.000 Km. To make it easy, astronomers have called this an <em>Astronomical Unit<\/em>. So if someone says &#8220;<em>This spacecraft has traveled 1 Astronomical Unit<\/em>&#8221; then this means &#8220;<em>This spacecraft has traveled a distance of 150 Million Kilometers.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>The light of the sun needs to travel roughly 5 Astronomical Units &#8211; in other words: about 750 Million Kilometers &#8211; until it reaches the larges planet in our solar system: Jupiter. For that distance, the light will need about 45 Minutes&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>In order to reach Pluto, the light of the sun would have to travel almost 40 Astronomical Units &#8211; in numbers: almost 6.000.000.000\u00a0(6 Billion!) Kilometers. That is so far, it would take the light about 5.5 hours to get there (and there is nothing faster than light, as far as we know!).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And that is where our solar system ends for many of us (even though we know today there are dwarf planets behind Pluto). Voyager 1 has gone way beyond that: tonight, she is an unbelievable <strong>115 Astronomical Units<\/strong> away from Sun (or Earth, at that distance, it does not matter).<\/p>\n<p>115 Astronomical Units &#8211; that is 17.250.000.000 Km or roughly 10 billion miles. The light of the Sun needs 16 hours to get there &#8211; and so does any radio control signal the NASA is still sending to the space probe.<\/p>\n<p>And what is next? In another few years (maybe as little as four) the probe will leave the Solar System and enter interstellar space &#8211; it will be the final frontier to cross and Voyager 1 will be the first space probe launched by man to go where nothing man-made has ever gone before&#8230;.<\/p>\n<h1>Reflections<\/h1>\n<p>Voyager 1 has also left us something else to consider &#8211; and I wish, people would really reflect on it: in 1990, the space probe took a last set of photos looking back at where it has come from. From a record distance of 6 billion kilometers, it photographed Earth &#8211; nothing but a &#8220;<a title=\"The Pale Blue Dot\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pale_Blue_Dot\" target=\"_blank\">pale blue dot<\/a>&#8221; almost invisible in the vastness of space.<\/p>\n<p>Usually, I write my texts myself &#8211; there is no point in being a copy-cat or thief of other people&#8217;s words &#8211; but in honor of <a title=\"Wikipedia - Carl Sagan\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Carl_Sagan\" target=\"_blank\">Carl Sagan<\/a>, I would like to quote a great assessment he made on that particular photo:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>&#8220;From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular  interest. But for us, it&#8217;s different. Look again at that dot. That&#8217;s  here, that&#8217;s home, that&#8217;s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you  know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived  out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of  confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter  and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of  civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every  mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher  of morals, every corrupt politician, every &#8220;superstar,&#8221; every &#8220;supreme  leader,&#8221; every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived  there\u00a0\u2013 on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the  rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in  glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction  of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of  one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of  some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they  are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we  have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this  point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great  enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is  no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is  nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could  migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the  Earth is where we make our stand.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building  experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of  human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it  underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and  to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we&#8217;ve ever  known.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; text-align: right;\"><em>Carl Sagan, &#8220;Pale Blue Dot&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There is nothing more to say&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A hearty &#8220;Well done!&#8221; to an old traveler &#8211; the US spacecraft Voyager 1: NASA has confirmed today, that the\u00a0space probe\u00a0has reached a point in the outer solar system where the effects of the solar wind are no longer measurable &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/?p=174\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein","tag-astronomy-space"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1azp4-2O","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2027-04-30 13:27:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1356,"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/1356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andreaszapf.de\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}