Website of the day: Voyager

Boldly going ? and going ? and going

Over the past couple of days, readers of a certain age, just like many of us here, could be forgiven for having been a bit misty-eyed and nostalgic.

A bit philosophical, even.

To be honest, we were a bit astonished.

You see, something that many of us wouldn’t have thought about in a very long time, suddenly hit the headlines again.

That thing is Voyager.

In 1977, NASA sent into space two probes – Voyagers 1 and 2. Their mission was to have a bit of a sniff about in our solar system and send back data about our neighbouring planets.

Over the next few years, that’s exactly what they did, teaching us more about the space around us that we could possibly have imagined.

Then, they went onward, into the farthest reaches of our solar system.

And, now this is the astonishing bit, they’re still going.

It’s now thought that Voyager 1 is at the very edge of our solar system. It’s approaching, or may have already passed, the point where it’s no longer influenced by our Sun.

That’s a long way.

And it’s still in touch, teaching us unimaginable things about our universe.

Thirty-five years on, it remains one of mankind’s greatest achievements.

To find out more, and keep up to date, take a look at voyager.jpl.nasa.gov.

Voyager, we salute you.

Happy travels.?

Tags: WebsiteOfTheDay Websites Software Online

Website of the day: Voyager originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:00:00 +0000

via Pocket-lint http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/50503/nasa-space-probes-still-probing