One of the foundations of permaculture is to look closely at edges, and to design systems that increase both the amount and permeability of edges. Why? The more edge, the more action, the more dynamic the interplay between different species, attitudes, situations, events, world-views, cultures, etc. Notice, for example, that at the edge of a field, where it meets a forest, a multitude of birds, insects and animals gather, along with bushes and other flora that are found in neither the field nor the forest beyond.
And if the universe is hologrammatic, so that every scale is a fractal of the whole, the fact that humanity, via its Voyager 1, is reaching the edge of the solar system (heliosphere) and about to penetrate the heliosheath that protects our puny little mental comprehension from the unimaginable vastness of the universe beyond, should give us pause: the tiny, competing “belief systems” of our collective mind are about to be blown wide open.
Let us welcome this opening. Let us welcome it today, on June 19th, 2012, when the Sun and Moon reach 28+° in the curious, restlessly roaming sign of Gemini, and a day when both Venus (love) and Jupiter (expansion) also occupy that endlessly fascinated sign.
As with every New Moon, we begin again. Are we ready?
Today’s New Moon leads into Summer Solstice, tomorrow, June 20, when the Sun’s light is longest in the northern hemisphere, when it tips over into Cancer and the night begins to take over the day.
These two astrological/astronomical alignments herald the first of seven exact, and very very tense Uranus/Pluto square transits, which, over the next three years, promise to revolutionize and/or evolutionize the calcified plutocratic structures that have governed our civilization for far too long.
The first exact square occurs Sunday, June 24.
I could ask, again rhetorically, are we ready? But there is no way to prepare for this extraordinary unknown, no way to see through the veil until we do.
Simply: be present
to the living, breathing, self-organizing, conscious cosmos.
Humanity escapes the solar system: Voyager 1 reached interstellar space
June 15, 2012
With absolutely no attempt at hyperbole at all, it is fair to say that this is one of – if not the – biggest achievement of the human race.
For, as we speak, an object conceived in the human mind, and built by our tools, and launched from our planet, is sailing out of the further depths of our solar system – and will be the first object made by man to sail out into interstellar space.
The Voyager 1, built by Nasa and launched in 1977 has spent the last 35 years steadily growing its distance from Earth, and is now now 17,970,000,000km – or 11,100,000,000miles – away, travelling at 10km a second.
Indications over the last week implies that Voyager 1 is now leaving the heliosphere – the last vestige of this solar system.
The probe is still detecting ‘spikes’ in the intensity of cosmic ray electrons – which lead scientists to feel it is still within the ‘heliosheath’, the really outer edge of our solar system.
The Voyager probe has been travelling towards the outer reaches of the solar system since 1977 – it has adequate batteries to last till 2020, scientists estimate
The Atlantic reports that the Voyager 1 – which is still managing to communicate with Earth with radio waves that reach us 16 hours later – is starting to experience a bit of heat.
It is detecting much more energetic particles around it, implying it it at the really edge of the heliosheath, which is like a bubble around the solar system, safeguarding us from the cosmic winds of deep space.
2 thoughts on “After 35 years, Voyager 1 penetrates the edge of the solar system”
Bring it on!
I love this post. The information in it is so salient to me, and makes me hum with excitement. I love what you wrote about permaculture (wow– never read it presented in that way and with the connections you made, it really made me say to myself, “COOL.” :D).
I can’t stop grinning at this! I feel giddy! 😀 Everyone, hold on to your hats!! (Or, really, just let ’em GO! LOL)
Thank you.
Hey, you betcha’ Makes me thrum with excitement, too.