Voyager's Greatest Hits: The Epic Trek to Interstellar Space
To Vicki Cobb dear friend mentor and the Voyager 1 of children’s nonfiction literature
CoNTENTS Track 1 Adventure of a Lifetime 1 Track 2 Thing 1 and Thing 2 5 Track 3 King Jupiter 15 Track 4 Lord of the Rings 25 Track 5 Totally Tilted 33 Track 6 Last Tango in Space 41 Track 7 Cosmic Cruisers 49 Track 8 Voyager’s Alien Playlist 59 Acknowledgments 66 Author’s Note 66 Glossary 68 The Voyagers Greatest Finds 70 Keeping Up with the Voyagers 70 Further Resources 71 Source Notes 71 Index 73
AdvENTUre of a LIFETIme TRack 1 The year is 1990 and Voyager 1 is speeding through space at 39,000 miles per hour 17 43 kilometers per second Its camera has been turned off for ten years in order to save power and memory for future exploration But the urge to look back and take one last glance at home is irre pressible So on February 14 the camera aboard Voyager 1 is turned on for a few minutes From 3 7 billion miles 59 5 billion kilometers out Voyager 1 snaps sixty photos to make the most distant portrait of the solar system ever It is a valentine from outer space The image of planet Earth is so small it is easily missed a pale blue dot in a vast void But the message is clear It is a note to hu manity signed in a sunbeam Take good care TO THe STArs The Voyager Planetary Mission began in 1977 when the twin space craft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched on a four-year tour to Jupiter and Saturn They reached Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980 and 1981 but the mission did not end there In 1986 Voyager 2 The Voyagers are the first explorers from Earth to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space Image of star cluster NGC 290 by Hubble Space Telescope 2004
