Thursday, September 12, 2013

In a Breathtaking First, NASA Craft Exits the Solar System



         

Barnes, Brooks. "In a Breathtaking First, NASA’s Voyager 1 Exits the Solar System." New York Times. N.p., 12 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Sept. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/science/in-a-breathtaking-first-nasa-craft-exits-the-solar-system.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&ref=science>.



          “In a Breathtaking First, NASA Craft Exits the Solar System” by Brooks Barnes is a article about how NASA confirmed that Voyager 1 had left the solar system back in the summer of 2012, around the 25th of August. For many scientists comprehending how far Voyager 1 has traveled is almost impossible. After drifting through space Voyager 1 is now 36 years old, but still sending back signals to NASA headquarters. For many years Voyager 1 has been in a way forgotten by the scientific community, but now that it has done something that has never seen before, the outdated craft is back in the spotlight. The incredible thing about Voyager 1 is that its technology is extremely simple compared to technology we have now such as the iPhone, yet it is getting the job done even though it has 1/240,00th of the memory that is found in an iPhone that you might have in your pocket. After sometime the Voyager 1 staff was made to include 12 people only, one of these people is Ms. Dodd, who earlier in the year was embarrassed to even walk among those who are in charge of the Curiosity Mars rover. As of now these 12 people are overlooking one of the most exciting missions since the moon landing. Because of the small amount of space on the Voyager 1 craft, the Voyager 1 staff must now plan everything out perfectly, allowing for the available space to be put to good use. Now that the Voyager craft has left our solar system it has begun a new mission, where it shall relay information about interstellar space.
          As a human being I feel like humanity has taken another large leap. After hearing about Voyager 1 leaving our solar system I was extremely proud of the human race. For not only did we put a man on the moon but in the same century we have sent a man made object into interstellar space. This breakthrough shall lead to great discoveries about what is beyond our solar system, and hopefully us humans shall understand a lot more about the universe In the coming years. 
          I personally really enjoyed this article for its detailed information and the way it was written. As I was reading the writing style literally made me excited as I was reading, I believe the author did a great job in keeping a flow to the article itself. I hope to read more articles like this in the future.
            

2 comments:

  1. Reading this Summary was very shocking to me because, like the most people, I had completely forgotten about the Voyager I. The summary of the article was very well written in the sense that it gave the reader all the information he needed to know. The author gave the necessary current and background information needed to fully understand what was happening even if you didn’t know about the Voyager I at all. Another thing he did very well was that he kept the information moving; he didn’t make it too long and too boring. The author was able to provide just enough information from the article to give the reader everything he would need without putting him to sleep. Also, some of the information he did give was relatable to our lives today, and made it much easier to put into perspective, for example, the fact that the Voyager I’s computer only has 1/240,000 of the memory of a common iPhone. Like the actual article, the author of this summary was able to keep the writing exciting and you could almost feel his energy from the writing. He seems to be very interested in this topic and the energy of his writing help make the summary that much more exciting and interesting.
    This article was very good, but one thing the author could have done to make this summary better is to have added a little more on how this space craft was forgotten. The article may not have said this information, but one thing this leaves me curios about it how could this space craft have been forgotten? Did we just forget that we had a probe drifting into space still sending back information? Also, on the personal reaction, was “the way it was written,” really one of the things you enjoyed the most? There’s nothing wrong with that but with a topic as interest as this wouldn’t something else be more interesting? Maybe if it might find another planet or maybe how far could this probe go and still transmit data. Even with these comments the summary is very interest and inspires curiosity on the new ideas and things that could come from this.
    I was not aware of any of this current news so this entire topic is very exciting to me. This article makes me want to do more research on this topic and find out as much as I can about it.

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  2. So I remembered about hearing about the Voyager I in Mr. Viggiani ‘s class back in the 6th grade and I just remembered being fascinated by how close one probe reach Jupiter can be from a time age which isn’t as technologically advance as us right now with the IPhone and SG4 . One thing that the author of the review did very well was how the whole writing was in flow like it didn’t go from one opinion to the other rapidly. Another one that he did well was how he compared the Voyager I technology and comparing to the IPhone and the space that the Voyager had and what a phone we care in our pockets have. Finally another thing that the author did well was the way he formatted the summary it really shows that he put some time and effort into this review article.
    There aren’t really any things that were wrong. I think the author could explain how people don’t remember the Voyager or what people think about the Voyager now and before. Also what the author own reactions was to the people either forgetting about the probe or his opinion about the probe since he explained about the IPhone and how it Impacted our technology.
    I wasn’t aware about the Voyager after reading this article to tell you the truth but I was always fascinated with the Astronomy and space stuff has always been fun for me.

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