Elvis Has Left The Building! Or Maybe Not.

A few weeks back I did a post about the Voyager space craft. (2/25/13) In that post I gave you an update of the Voyager 1 & 2 as of March 2012. After 36 years both of the probes continue to send data back to NASA.

Well the Voyager 1 probe has hit the headlines this month. The data that was received from the craft initially indicated that it may have left the solar system. That would make it the first man made object to reach interstellar space. At a distance of 11.3 billion miles, equipment measured a drastic change in radiation levels. At first, this was thought to be a sign that the little probe had left the solar system.

However, after going over the data, the lead on the project issued a statement that Voyager in fact has not made it to interstellar space. Kind of a bummer.

Here is a link to the recent press release.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/20/science/la-sci-voyager-20130321


Don't you hate that... get all excited... pop the cork on the champagne... pull out the party hats... kiss that cute co-worker... only to find out... whoops.. we were wrong. Now... it's just uncomfortable.


-Red
www.jeffjake.com
www.facebook.com/jeffreyrjake
Twitter @MortisG187

Email Jeff at author@jeffjake.com

What? Pluto's Having a House Guest!

My post the other day about Pluto got me all fired up about the little planet. (Dwarf planet just isn't politically correct. I think it hurts his feelings.) So I did some further investigation into our distant friend. What I found out was that NASA has sent a probe to the icy world. Did you know that? I didn't... You would think a nerd such as myself would have known SOMETHING about this mission.

Well anyway, the mission is called "New Horizons" and the craft was launched on January 19th 2006. As an interesting side note, the probe is carrying some of the ashes of the man who discovered the planet, Clyde W. Tombaugh.

The cool thing about the mission is that it will be approaching Pluto in 2015. The probe will be at its closest point on July 14th 2015. From there, it will head on to the Kuiper Belt to explore that region of our solar system.

Here is a cool link to NASA and information about "New Horizons"
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

I'm looking forward to what they find out about the now defunct planet. Maybe they will have to change their mind and re-instate it's planetary status.


-Red
www.jeffjake.com
www.facebook.com/jeffreyrjake
Twitter @MortisG187

Email Jeff at author@jeffjake.com