Image Pioneer 10 Spacecraft Falls Silent The first spacecraft to venture out of the solar system, has fallen silent after traveling billions of miles from Earth on a mission that has lasted nearly 31 years, NASA said Tuesday. What was apparently the spacecraft's last signal was received Jan. 22 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Network. At the time, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth; the signal, traveling at the speed of light, took 11 hours and 20 minutes to arrive.
Pioneer 10 was launched March 2, 1972, on a 21-month mission. It became the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and the first to obtain close-up images of Jupiter. In 1983, it became the first manmade object to leave the solar system when it passed the orbit of distant Pluto. Pioneer 10 carries a gold plaque engraved with a message of goodwill and a map showing the Earth's location in the solar system. The spacecraft continues to coast toward the star Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus. It will take 2 million years to reach it. The Guardian
A timely reminder of how immense (and awesome) the universe, and how little (and lonely) our boat. Is not this "fear of the void" the source of so much injustice and frantic self-importance? If I am but a tiny animuscal alive for a cosmic millisecond, at least let me be more significant than the next guy. Let me enforce this greater importance through institutional status (caste) and coercion whenever possible. And let me repress my terror by busyness and vainglory. And yet there is a more excellent way: to Love and be Loved, to hold and be held. "Be still, and know that I am God." And then life and the cosmos begin to be beautiful MG+
PS Another way of looking at it: Pioneer 10 takes the prize for the furthest rock we've tossed thus far-- 7.6 billion miles--and now that the current has it...