On a visit to The Colbert Report in 2013, the eponymous host asked NASA scientist Ed Stone if he ever got annoyed that the agency’s astronauts get all the show and fanfare while researchers toil behind the scenes.
“No,” Stone replied, “we’re having a lot of fun.”
Indeed, Stone served as chief scientist of the space agency’s Voyager mission, which sent two spacecraft on humanity’s longest, most distant, and ongoing exploration effort. half a century, from 1972 to 2022. This mission yielded stunning and never-before-seen views of our solar system. It was also the first mission to fly by all four of the mysterious outer planets, the first to discover multiple moons around each of those planets, the first to find active volcanoes on another world, and much more. Eventually, the two Voyager craft became the first to leave our cosmic neighborhood and enter the interstellar realm.
The legendary explorer died at the age of 88 on June 9, 2024. But his inspired vision for scientists and children looking up from our perch in the Milky Way galaxy is immortal.
“He will forever be an inspiration to all who #DareMightyThings,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the interstellar mission, wrote online.
A NASA scientist viewed the first images from Voyager. What he saw sent chills down his spine.
Stone realized that Voyager’s discoveries needed to reach millions of people outside the gates of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, rather than sitting in a room while scientists slowly dissected the findings. In the afternoon, the space agency will receive new images from Jupiter or Neptune, and Voyager’s science team will quickly discuss and select the best discoveries to present to the curious public.
“Dr. Stone, you are my hero too.
“Scientists then refined their presentations that evening and even overnight—Stone often pressed them to come up with analogies that would make the material more accessible to a lay audience—while the graphics team worked to assemble supporting images,” NASA explained. in the statement.
Mashable Light Speed
This changed lives.
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View of Neptune from Voyager 2, taken in 1989. Strong breath belts are seen swirling through the atmosphere.
Credit: NASA
“RIP Ed Stone, Voyager’s longtime mission leader. I learned so much from him during the Neptune encounter: how to maximize science and how to share science with the world,” Heidi B. Hammel, a NASA planetary astronomer and award-winning science communicator, wrote on the X website ( formerly Twitter). Hammel, who helped Voyager 2 capture the first glimpses of Neptune in 1989, is now investigating the origins of life as lead scientist on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope mission.
Hiro Ono, now a NASA roboticist, shared online that Voyager 2’s trip around Neptune sparked his deep interest in space exploration. “I was 6 years old when Voyager 2 encountered Neptune,” Hiro emailed Stone in 2018. “Since then, it’s been my dream to build a spaceship like Voyager. 24 years later I proudly joined JPL. Now I’m working on the Mars 2020 Rover and the Europa Lander is so exciting.”
“Voyager 2 is my hero who showed me the way,” added Ono. “Dr. Stone, you are my hero too. Thank you so much.”
Stone, the busy project scientist leading the agency’s confirmation that Voyager 2 has made the big leap into interstellar space, took the time to respond:
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Ed Stone spoke to the media during the historic flyby of Uranus in 1986.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A year into its trip to Neptune, the Voyager team planned to capture an unprecedented “family portrait” of the planets, including Earth, when Voyager was about 4 billion miles away. “This is not only the first time, but perhaps the only time in decades that we will be able to take an image of planets outside the solar system,” Stone said at the time.
A family portrait of the planets taken by Voyager 1 looking back into our solar system in 1990. Earth is the middle dot in the top row.
Credit: NASA
Today, Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles away, and Voyager 2 is well over 12 billion miles away. They will eventually run out of nuclear power — perhaps in the mid-1930s — but the mission will continue as our “silent ambassador” to space, Stone told Colbert. Both Voyagers carry a 12-inch proprietary record containing various sounds and images of Earth.
Whether anyone ever listens or not, the Stone-led mission will have a long-lasting legacy, far beyond the borders of our solar system.
“These two spacecraft will now be in orbit around the center of our galaxy for billions of years,” he said.