Voyager 1, the space probe which was launched to explore Jupiter and Saturn in 1977, has entered interstellar space.But finally being in this state does come with its fair share of events more specifically, cosmic “tsunami waves”.According to our scientists, a “tsunami wave” is a response from the Sun when it emanates a magnetic cloud from its surface.From this, a wave of pressure soon coincides with the interstellar plasma( the gas found between the stars) and results in a huge shock wave. What does this mean for Voyager 1?
This isn’t the first shock wave Voyager 1 has experienced but it’s actually the third.The first time lasted from October to November of 2012 and the second event, one that was more powerful,lasted from April to May of 2013.The third wave has been carefully analysed since February of this year and it’s still holding up strong 9 months after.The Sun’s interference with the interstellar medium is called coronal mass ejection (CME) and currently there is no estimate as to how long such a wave may last. One thing is certain, though, when the shock hits Voyager 1 it gets noisy. Don Gurnett from the University of Iowa assures us that tsunami waves are a common thing in interstellar flight whereas Ed Stone from the California Institute of Technology says that “the tsunami causes the ionized gas that is out there to resonate — ‘sing’or vibrate like a bell”.See for yourself in the video below.
Since Voyager 1’s third encounter with the “tsunami” it has travelled a quarter of a billion miles.Because we don’t know how long these shock waves actually hold up, scientists still speculate.Gurnett thinks that this event could last for another hundred astronomical units or more.How long is an astronomical unit? Around 93 million miles more or less.Voyager 1 is 12 billion miles from the sun and it’s still going strong.The sturdy space craft is currently leading in the interstellar medium but another spacecraft is soon making way into this semi-charted territory.Voyager 2 launched 16 days before Voyager 1 and it also flew over Jupiter and Saturn plus took a walk around Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2 is expected to enter interstellar space in the near future.