Voyager 1 in the Interstellar Medium: What are we Seeing Out There?

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Speaker(s): John Belcher

The Voyager spacecraft were launched in the Fall of 1977, 38 years ago. After a “grand tour” of the outer planets, ending with Voyager 2 at Neptune in 1989, the spacecraft have continued outward toward interstellar space, continuing to return data about the particle and field environment of the distant solar and interstellar medium. Voyager 1 is farthest from the Sun and is in the interstellar medium. Voyager 2 is about 20 astronomical units closer to the Sun than Voyager 1, and is still in the shocked solar wind. Voyager 2 is expected to enter the interstellar medium in the next few years. Voyager 1 is observing a number of interesting phenomena, including shocks in the interstellar medium. I will discuss some early history of the mission and then the latest science results from Voyager 1.

Colloquium

Junior and senior physics majors attend our biweekly colloquium series, held on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. in Shanahan B460. The talks are open to all students and to the public, and are frequently attended by scientists from the other Claremont Colleges, Cal Poly Pomona, and others. The series features speakers from a broad range of institutions and fields of physics.