Saturday, June 23, 2012

Voyager 1 At The Final Frontier

At the edge of the solar system, Voyager 1 is reporting a sharp increase in cosmic rays that could herald the spacecraft's long-awaited entry into interstellar space.

                



Credit: Science@NASA




In the early 2000s many new, relatively large planetary bodies were found beyond what was at the time planet Pluto, and with orbits extending hundreds of AU out past the heliosheath (90-1000 AU).

The NASA probe New Horizons may explore this area after it performs its planned Pluto flyby in 2015 (Pluto ranges from about 29-49 AU). Some of these large objects past Pluto include, Eris (136199), Haumea (136108), Makemake (136472), and Sedna (90377). Sedna comes as close as 76 AU, but travels out as far as 961 AU at aphelion, and minor planet 87269 goes out past 1060 AU at aphelion. Bodies like these have an impact on how the Solar System is understood, and traverse an area previously only in the domain of interstellar missions or precursors probes.

After the discoveries, the area is also in the domain of interplanetary probes; some of the discovered bodies may become targets for exploration missions,an example of which is preliminary work on a probe to Haumea (136108) and its moons (at 35-51 AU). Probe mass, power source, and propulsion systems are key technology areas for this type of mission.

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