Interstellar Main Theme - Extra Extended - Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer

Extrasolar Object Confirmed as Interstellar - revised

Extrasolar object A/2017 U1 is now considered to be the first celestial object from interstellar space-in this case,from somewhere in the direction of the constellation Lyra-to have ever been observed transiting through our solar system.First reported by Rob Weryk of the University of Hawaii with the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope on Haleakala on 19 October 2017,it is beyond a reasonable doubt a major event in the history of astronomy.The original report was almost instantly confirmed by Marco Micheli of the European Space Agency on a telescope at the ESA's Optical Ground Station at Tenerife,Canary Islands.*
How do we know this?The object's speed was such,at 25.5 km/second,that it could not be in a closed elliptical orbit around the Sun,the way an object from our solar system would be.It is just too fast for that.Nor could it have been sling-shot by encountering a planet's gravity.It entered our solar system far above the ecliptic plane,near which all the planetary orbits are.
After its arrival,A/2017 U1 passed about 25 million km below Earth on 14 October.It has accelerated to a blistering 44 km per second as it makes for the constellation Pegasus.By 26 October,a refined set of orbital parameters had been calculated,confirming the interstellar origins of the object with a high degree of confidence.
We do not know exactly what type of object it is-perhaps something new to science.It doesn't conform to the current concept of a comet,as it has no tail or vapor trail from passing by the Sun.A/2017 U1 is thought to be about 400 m in diameter.*
According to Andy Kivkin,a planetary astronomer of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel,Maryland:
There seems to be no question in the community that this is really real.They think this is a legit,bona-fide insterstellar object.This is a visitor from another solar system,and we are here in a time and place to see it.Who knows where it's been before?Who knows where it's going after this?*
It is up to the International Astronomical Union to assign the object a permanent name.As of 3 November,it is expected to be beyond the range of all telescopes.

Astronomy Special:Voyager I Detects Third Shock Wave

Voyager I,which was launched in 1977,has experienced its third shock wave in deep space.This wave is the longest in duration-it started in February 2014 and continues to this day.The spacecraft is still making significant discoveries more than thirty-seven years after its launch,calling home every day.The waves are created when the Sun emits a coronal mass ejection and a cloud of magnetic plasma from its surface,which results in a pressure wave that hits the interstellar plasma where Voyager I is,causing ionised gas to resonate or vibrate like a bell.
Voyager I executed flybys of Jupiter and Saturn before heading for interstellar space,finally leaving the solar system in August 2012,a study published in Science magazine reckons.It left the heliosphere,the region of the solar wind.Voyager chief scientist Ed Stone confirmed this in September 2013.It will fly past distant comets in 30,000 years and near another star in 40,000 years,traveling now at more than 38,000 miles an hour.
According to Leonard Burlaga of NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt,Maryland,this remarkable shock wave event raises questions that will stimulate new studies of the nature of shocks in the interstellar medium.Why has the third shock wave lasted so long?How fast is the wave moving?How broad a region does it cover?The first of Voyager I's shock waves was from October to November 2012;the second was from April to May 2013.
Voyager I's twin,Voyager II,was launched 16 days ahead of Voyager I on 20 August 1977;Voyager I followed on 5 September 1977.Each spacecraft weighs 722 kilograms.Voyager II will likely follow Voyager I out of the solar system in a few years-it had made a detour to fly by Uranus and Neptune,the only spacecraft ever to have visited these outer planets.

Voyager I Milestone Thrills Scientists

Just over a year ago,the venerable old Voyager I spacecraft left the solar system,although not the sun's influence entirely,and entered interstellar space,the space between the stars,NASA scientists reported this week.It is now in the transition zone just outside the solar bubble,and in the ionised gas between the stars.Some solar disturbance still obtains in this transition zone.
We believe this is mankind's histric leap into interstellar space,said Ed Stone,Voyager Project Scientist at Caltech,Pasadena.Voyager had entered the heliosphere,or solar bubble of charged particles which defines the edge of the solar system,in 2004.It first entered interstellar space on 12 August,2013,when an abrupt change in the density of energetic particles was first detected by Voyager I.
Suzanne Dodd,Voyager Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,Pasadena,said we expect the fields and particles science instruments on Voyager will continue to send back data through at least 2020.We can't wait to see what the Voyager instruments show us next about deep space.
Voyager I's twin,Voyager II,was actually launched a few weeks ahead of Voyager I in 1977.Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn,but Voyager II veered off to fly by Uranus and Neptune as well.Scientists talk to or receive data from both spacecraft almost every day.It takes the weak 23 watt signal of Voyager I about 17 hours to reach earth.As of its February 21,2013 radio telescope image,Voyager I was 11.5 billion miles/18.5 billion kilometers from earth.It is now about 19 billion miles away.