NASA launched Voyager 1, humanity’s first interstellar traveler, from Cape Canaveral on September 5, 1977. Monday marks the 45th anniversary of this momentous event.
Voyager’s original mission was to photograph Jupiter and Saturn, a 5-year assignment; but the unstoppable spacecraft continued to zip around the solar system and beyond, communicating with NASA and sending back data.
Voyager 1 crossed beyond the heliosphere into interstellar space in 2012. Not long after, it detected something and sent it back. A whistle. And then it picked up another one.
In this episode of KQED’s Audible Cosmos, we explore what Voyager encountered in that space between stars, and what else it might find on its journey.
- See how far away both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are right now
- Hear the original sound picked up by Voyager 1
Audible Cosmos is produced and reported by Amanda Font and Lowell Robinson, with original scoring by Lowell Robinson.