Humanity says Hi to Aliens
- Mashriq Afnan
- Jul 11, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 8, 2024
Just a few days ago, I went to the theatre and watched "Interstellar," a full decade after its initial
release. The film's thought-provoking theories left me utterly captivated and in awe like the hundreds of times I have watched it in the confines of my room. Right after I came home, I searched in Google “humanity’s furthest mark in space”. The first hit that came was “Voyager 1”.
The Voyager mission consists of two twin spacecraft—Voyager 1 and Voyager 2—that embarked on an incredible journey 47 years ago, a journey that continues to this day! When NASA began developing the Voyager mission, they aimed to take advantage of a unique planetary alignment that occurs only once every 176 years. This alignment allowed for close-up studies of Jupiter, Saturn, Saturn's rings, and the larger moons of these two planets.
Voyager 2 started its voyage on August 20, 1977, departing a mere 16 days before its twin. Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989. In contrast, Voyager 1 took a quicker, more direct path, enabling it to explore Jupiter and Saturn in greater detail, producing extensive data and photos. Voyager 1’s route was designed for a thorough examination of Titan, Saturn’s moon, which precluded it from continuing to Uranus and Neptune. It made its closest approach to Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980.
Today, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have ventured into interstellar space, continuing their mission to explore the outer reaches of our solar system and beyond.
Paths taken by the Voyagers through the solar system. Credits: Jet Propulsion Laboratory – NASA.
Both Voyagers made significant discoveries at Jupiter. They rendered its massive storm system, the Great Red Spot, visible in great clarity and revealed subtle characteristics about its moons. Voyager 1 discovered active volcanism on Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, which was the first time active volcanoes had been observed on another body in the solar system.
Some beautiful pictures taken by the Voyagers near Jupiter. Left to Right: Closeup of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Jupiter’s moon Callisto, Jupiter’s moon Io with active volcanoes. Credits: Jet Propulsion Laboratory – NASA
At Saturn, the Voyagers sent back detailed images and data on the planet's rings, atmosphere, and moons. Voyager 1's flyby of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, revealed a thick atmosphere, primarily composed of nitrogen.
Pictures taken by the Voyagers near Saturn. Left to right: Saturn and three moons: Tethys, Dion and Rhea; Saturn’s clouds; F-ring. Two braided separate orbit rings. Credits: Jet Propulsion Laboratory – NASA
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. At Uranus, it discovered 10 new moons and studied the planet's unusual magnetic field. At Neptune, Voyager 2 observed the planet’s Great Dark Spot, similar to Jupiter’s storm system, and captured images of its moon Triton, which has geysers of liquid nitrogen.
Left: Voyager 2 image of Uranus. Right: Voyager 2 image of Neptune
Before the Voyagers took the world by storm, the Pioneers – the Voyagers’ predecessors - had a vital role to the charting and designing of Voyager 1 and 2. Five years after the beginning of the legendary odyssey of Pioneer 10, the Voyagers set sail - wiser, better and smarter - with a similar ambition as the Pioneers. During the 1990s, Voyager 1 overtook the slower Pioneers 10 and 11, and the distance between Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1 became the greatest separation between two man-made objects in the universe.
On the attempt to leave the confines of the sanctuary of our home solar system, Voyager 1 entered the heliosheath in December 2004 after passing through the termination shock, which causes the solar wind to slow down to subsonic speed. Here, the solar wind is compressed and becomes turbulent as a result of interactions with the interstellar medium. Voyager 2 reached the termination shock on December 10, 2007, about 1.6 billion kilometers (1 billion miles) closer to the Sun than Voyager 1 did at that same moment, confirming the asymmetry of the Solar System.
In 2010, scientists forecasted that the Voyager 1 was approaching interstellar space when it was detected that the solar wind's outward velocity had decreased to zero. In 2011, Voyager data revealed that the heliosheath is not smooth, but rather is full with gigantic magnetic bubbles, which are speculated to occur as the Sun's magnetic field becomes distorted toward the edge of the Solar System.
In June 2012, NASA scientists observed a dramatic increase in high-energy particles from outside the Solar System, indicating that Voyager 1 was approaching interstellar space. By the end of August 2013, NASA confirmed that Voyager 1 had successfully crossed into interstellar space which was followed by the traversal of Voyager 2 into the unknown on 5 November 2018.
Voyagers 1 and 2 were identical spacecrafts capable of conducting 10 different experiments. The image shows a model of the spacecrafts. Credit: NASA
Steerable Platform: Allows the cameras and other instruments to be aimed precisely.
Wide Angle TV: Captures broad images of planets, moons, and other celestial objects.
Narrow Angle TV: Provides detailed images of specific targets with a narrower field of view.
Photo-Polarimeter: Measures the intensity and polarization of light, helping to determine the properties of planetary atmospheres and surfaces.
Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer and Radiometer: Analyzes infrared radiation to determine temperature distributions and atmospheric compositions of planets and moons.
Science Instrument Boom: A structure that holds and positions various scientific instruments away from the main body of the spacecraft to minimize interference.
Plasma: Refers to the Plasma Spectrometer, which measures the properties of plasma in the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres.
Cosmic Ray: Refers to the Cosmic Ray System, which detects high-energy cosmic rays to study the intensity and composition of cosmic radiation.
Low-Energy Charged Particles: Measures the flux of low-energy ions and electrons, studying their behavior in space environments.
Thrusters: Small rocket engines used to adjust the spacecraft's orientation and trajectory.
Ultraviolet Spectrometer: Studies ultraviolet light from celestial sources to understand the composition and behavior of planetary atmospheres and surfaces.
High-Gain Antenna: A large dish antenna used for transmitting data back to Earth and receiving commands from mission control.
Low-Gain Antenna: Used for communication when the high-gain antenna is not pointed towards Earth.
Extendable Magnetometer Boom: Holds the magnetometers away from the spacecraft to reduce magnetic interference, allowing for accurate measurements of magnetic fields.
Star Trackers: Optical devices that help determine the spacecraft's orientation by tracking the positions of stars.
Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs): Provide electrical power to the spacecraft by converting heat from radioactive decay into electricity.
Planetary Radio Astronomy and Plasma Wave Antenna: Used to study radio emissions from planets and detect plasma waves in the space environment.
Science Instrument Calibration Panel and Shunt Radiator: Used to calibrate scientific instruments and dissipate excess heat from the spacecraft.
On a quiet launch pad over four decades ago, what was supposed to be a humbling reconnaissance mission has turned into humanity’s most daring journey into the interstellar void. Signals from the spacecraft take almost 22 hours to reach Earth now. 24 billion kilometers of traversing through this arcane celestial wilderness without a shred of life has already compromised our position as the loneliest species in our solar system. However, if the Voyagers were ever to come across intelligent alien life in the next second or millennia later, the Voyagers will make sure that the beacon of human existence doesn’t go unnoticed. The Voyager twins are each equipped with a gold-plated record that is filled with information about its home planet, including recordings of music, noises from Earth, and greetings in fifty-five different languages. To access those, carefully considered playing record instructions were included by NASA engineers if they were to ever stumble across intelligent life.
A Golden Record inside one of the Voyager spacecraft. Credit: NASA
What remains to be seen is that if there is a response from the other side to the indomitable testament of humanity.
Voyager did things no one predicted, found scenes no one expected, and promises to outlive its inventors. Like a great painting or an abiding institution, it has acquired an existence of its own, a destiny beyond the grasp of its handlers.
Click this link to see more breathtaking photos taken by the Voyagers
Click this link to learn more about the Golden Records that are fitted in the Voyagers
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