When
3:45 p.m., Oct. 1, 2013
Where
Kuiper Space Sciences 312
Dr. Randy Jokipii
Regents' Professor
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
Is Voyager 1 Really There?
The two Voyager spacecraft were launched more than 36 years ago. After completing their flybys of the giant planets, they were renamed the Voyager Interstellar Mission, which had the goal of reaching the interstellar medium. In August 2012 events occurred in the energetic-particle detectors on Voyager 1 which suggested that the edge of the heliosphere (the heliopause) had been crossed, but subsequent analysis of the magnetometer data did not support this. Recently, analysis of events in the plasma-wave instrument provided very strong additional evidence that the heliopause had really been crossed, and this conclusion is now the consensus of the Voyager 1 science team. In this talk I will present the scientific background and go on to discuss the various observations and their interpretation.
Regents' Professor
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
Is Voyager 1 Really There?
The two Voyager spacecraft were launched more than 36 years ago. After completing their flybys of the giant planets, they were renamed the Voyager Interstellar Mission, which had the goal of reaching the interstellar medium. In August 2012 events occurred in the energetic-particle detectors on Voyager 1 which suggested that the edge of the heliosphere (the heliopause) had been crossed, but subsequent analysis of the magnetometer data did not support this. Recently, analysis of events in the plasma-wave instrument provided very strong additional evidence that the heliopause had really been crossed, and this conclusion is now the consensus of the Voyager 1 science team. In this talk I will present the scientific background and go on to discuss the various observations and their interpretation.