The Little Spacecraft That Could...Redux

   Voyager 1 is back in the news again. I blogged about this remarkable spacecraft way back on December 4, 2012 when it was poised to start leaving the solar system for interstellar space. Now, scientists say data they've been interpreting for the past few months shows the craft has entered a strange new region, 11 billion miles out.
   Measurements taken by the probe (yes, it's still sending usable data back 35 years after launch) suggest a dramatic drop in solar particles and a simultaneous big jump in high-energy galactic cosmic rays. What that means to non-rocket scientists like me is real rocket scientists figure Voyager will cross over into interstellar space, and leave the solar system, in a relatively short time. Something in the order of the next 2 years or so.
   And it's expected the craft will continue sending back information until it's plutonium power supply finally runs out. In about 2025, although at least one instrument will have to be shut off in 2020 due to the power drop. Not bad for 1977 technology!
   Voyager 1 is, by the way, the farthest man made object in space. It's twin, Voyager 2, is only 9 billion miles away from home.
   And it's the craft that took the so-called "family picture" of our solar system just before it's camera was shut off. And it was the image of Earth the late great Carl Sagan talked about in "The Pale Blue Dot". if you haven't seen it, do so. It's amazing!
   And for Voyager 1.....keep on trucking "Little Spacecraft That Could"!
   'Nuff said.