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Voyager 1 Reaches Interstellar Space
letxa2000 writes "CNN is reporting that Voyager 1, now some 8.4 billion miles (90 AUs) from the sun, has left the solar system and entered interstellar space by reaching the heliopause. However, whether the probe has reached the heliopause or is just coming close is the subject of two papers to be published in Thursday's Nature Magazine. The probe supposedly has enough nuclear fuel to last until 2020. Will it be able to find anything interesting outside the solar system in the next 17 years?"
Do you guys have any idea how much RAM had to be added to the Matrix to extend the simulation out that far?!
Kevin Fox
Short answer: No.
Long Answer: "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space... " -DNA
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
They've gone to plaid.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Heliopause
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The heliopause is the boundary where our Sun's solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium.
The solar wind blows a "bubble" in the interstellar medium (the rareified hydrogen and helium gas that permeates the galaxy). The point where the solar wind's strength is no longer great enough to push back the interstellar medium is known as the heliopause, and is often considered to be the outer "border" of the solar system.
The distance to the heliopause is not precisely known. It is probably much smaller on the side of the solar system facing the orbital motion through the galaxy. It may also vary depending on the current velocity of the solar wind and the local density of the interstellar medium. It is known to lie far outside the orbit of Pluto. The current mission of the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft is to find and study the heliopause.
An alternative definition is that the heliopause is the magnetopause between the solar system's magnetosphere and the galaxy's plasma currents.
...it isn't going to reach the delta quadrant anytime soon?
Aliens too stupid to wipe off some space dirt to realize the dang thing isn't named VEEEGERRRR!
What is music when you despise all sound?
What's the range of communications for the probe? When will we lose our connection (if we haven't already)?
if it does find anything, how long before it's out of earshot for us? Are we able to hear from it up until that last bit of fuel is spent?
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
Can only hope some day we catch up to Voyager. Either with a probe that could pass it up, or NCC-1701 :-)
More likely it'll be blown to smithereens by Klingons.
Voyager 1 has reached heliopause and is now experiencing hot flashes and irritability. Hormone replacement therapy has proven innefective thus far.
Is it the same sound as one hand clapping?
I have a Cig, but do you have a light?
What is this fuel used for? Just for communicating, or does it still need acceleration? If it's just for communication, couldn't they make it last longer by increasing the intervals between each time it communicates?
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
NASA's page on the heliosphere
Dogma - "let's just say we'd like to avoid any empirical entanglements."
That's how long it takes a signal to reach us from the probe. When you consider the galaxy is 100,000 light years across, 8.4 billion miles is nothing.
of how scientists do not take the next big leap. What frightens me the most is that we have not sent more probes after Voyager.
Coming up is a planetary alignment that would allow a route to Tau Ceti, one of the reasonably nearby stars that could have an inhabitable planet. Using modern high-velocity nuclear engines, a probe could be engineered to reach it in 100 years, roughly. And a craft could be engineered to actually survive the travel *and* send back useful data.
I want to see interstellar probes, engineered to travel to the nearest (12ly or less) stars and explore them.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
actually, kinda... it's the sound of a deep bass, which the human ear can't hear... they found out because they noticed it shifted planets and stars along it's wave... check it out here: space.com
Voyager will find the long lost Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Rumsfeld will use this as an excuse to overhaul the space program! We all know the Iraqis have had a secret space program since 1950.
90 AUs (Distance from the Sun to the Earth)
*
8 minutes (Time it takes light to reach Earth from the Sun)
=
720 Light Minutes
/
60
=
12 Light Hours.
We're quite a ways away from the Light Year.
says: "Doh, Stupid comet!"
20 years from now, against all odds, the comet bashed ever so slightly by our irresponsibly launched space probe slams into Yellowstone super volcano.
That little probe has to be stopped before it bumps into something! Send someone out to get it before it's too late!
This is my sig.
I wonder if we'll ever see space technology advance enough so that, one day, we might be able to send a spacecraft past Voyager. Maybe we'll have some form of near-light-speed travel, or even faster-than-light travel, and manage to reach other stellar systems before Voyager does ?
In any case, I'll be more than satisfied if we establish a colony on Mars, tag me a conservative if you will, but I don't feel like leaving good old Sol just yet.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
I'm not sure why I'm bothering to respond to this obvious troll, but here goes...
We already have enough resources to take care of all the needy people not only in this country but on this planet. The real problem is that society, as a whole, just doesn't care enough about the unfortunates enough to do anything. If we were to stop sending any money on space exploration, that money would not get immediately diverted to persons in need. It would most likely end up funding tax breaks so that people can buy a new SUV. Or maybe it would "disappear" in a S&L fraud or HUD "misappropriation".
I grow tired of hearing people complaining that we should divert money from science towards needed social programs. Those programs are underfunded because we just haven't made them a priority. Slashing someone else's budget isn't going to make that money magically appear in the budget of social programs. We would need a real fundamental change in attitudes of elected officials and the voting public.
GMD
watch this
Isn't that spiff? :-)
Scientists have long theorized that a shock wave exists where the hot solar wind bumps up against the thin gas of the interstellar medium.
Picard: To boldy go where no ma-, hang on Number 1, speed bump!
Will: All hands embrace for impact...
THUMP!
Picard: Data, inform engineering that we need better suspension on this thing...
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
don't you mean it will swallow up one of their war ships?
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act" - George Orwell
Would "we the people" ever hear about it? Or would the find be a classified secret due to so-called national/international security risks and issues?
It wouldn't matter whether it was classified or not. A secret that big would not stay a secret for long. There are leaks all the time. Christ, we've already managed to let the Chinese obtain detailed information about every nuclear weapon in our arsenal. I'm sure if we ever got a clear sign of extraterrestial intelligence, word would slip out in a matter of days. Some things are just way, way too important to expect that every single individual with access to that information would keep their trap shut.
GMD
watch this
Yes... kinda feeling old (I just turned 36) but I remember when Voyager was launched. It was emotional then, and its emotional now. Think: back then, 640k was a *lot*, and the standard logic was 7xxx series TTL chips. Dunno what CPU, but I doubt it was anything so advanced as a Z-80. Dunno what firmware either, if any - coulda been hardwired. Can't remember shit here.
Now, if you ask me: That's a beautiful piece of engineering, that we're still getting some use from.
It's already had some sensor damage, etc; the main question is how long the remaining sensors hold up, IMHO.
*...sniff...*
C|N>K
I worked at JPL for the power group, so I can actually say something about this. All of the deep-space probes run on radiothermal generators. What this is basically a radioactive source surrounded by thermoelectric generators and alpha particle absorbers. Thus, both the thermal gradient established between the radioactive material and space (via heat pipes and radiators) and the alpha particles emitted by the radioactive material are able to generate power. There are two limitations on the lifetime of these generators - the lifetime of the radioactive isotope, and the durability of the thermoelectrics and alpha particle absorbers. I don't know too much about the particle absorbers, but I worked with the thermoelectrics, and there are durability runs of several years. However, Voyager is far older then any test we could ever do. My feeling in this is that barring high-heat conditions, the thermoelectrics should be able to last nearly indefinitely.
They'll have to do it without Bones. He's dead, Jim!
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
First Broadcast: "My god, it's full of stars!"
Maybe now we'll find out how accurate that Starfield Simulation screensaver really is!
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
From the band Warlord:
"Through Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1
We've launched our knowledge to other suns
Aspiring and reaching for the highest of beings
We've lost our search for the world's basic needs"
I hope it does find something, or something finds it. Earth could use some good news.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
... expensive.
The Voyager probes weren't built for speed. They were coasters, zipping from gravity well to gravity well with just a few puffs from the steering jets now and then.
If there were some pressing reason to catch up, we could do it, although it would be pricey due to the current high cost of getting things into orbit. You'd need to get something up there with a motor capable of adding substantial change in velocity. A big liquid fueled motor, or perhaps one of those new-fangled ion drives powered by a really big solar collector or a small reactor.
This is one of those problems that will get easier with time, assuming even modest progress in space propulsion. If we ever get practical fusion drives (theoretical of Isp topping 100,000 seconds!) we could get out there in a couple of years.
Stefan
Stefan
Last time I checked the speed of sound in space was essentially zero...
Why?
Read more...
'Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes, aaarrrrrrrr!' -- Minsc
...the right of the people to keep and arm bears shall not be infringed.
That was a different Voyager.
Why is it that we can brainwash the masses into thinking that it's okay for us to spend billions on space crap while ignoring the homeless people living in the streets and at the YMCA?
You are very shortsighted. Funding technology research creates new solutions to age-old problems. One day, a technology will be invented that makes hunger obselete (as in the Star Trek future). This technology is only limited by will, means, and time.
Simply giving the money to the poor solves nothing. So they can buy pizza for their kids tonight. Big deal. It does nothing towards their ability to get pizza tomorrow or the next day.
This is why direct social programs are a waste of tax payers' money. They make the politicians feel good about themselves while saving them from having to think about real solutions that hit problems at their foundation. Socialized healthcare is an excellent example, where there are real government-caused problems that prevent the health care market from functioning, so the politicians take the easy road and create a socialized system that steals people's money against their will putting it into a bureaucracy that will kill more people than it helps.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
So, a supersonic velocity means the space probe is moving faster than the mean speed of the errant hydrogen atoms.
Subsonic means it's moving slower than the mean speed of the atoms, and a wave can propagate ahead of it.
In this case, the velocity of the particles from the sun slows down when they encounter interstellar particles.
from-JPL.NASA "The solar system does not end at the orbit of Pluto, the ninth planet. Nor does it end at the heliopause boundary, where the solar wind can no longer continue to expand outward against the interstellar wind. It extends over a thousand times farther out where a swarm of small cometary nuclei, termed Oort's Cloud, is barely held in orbit by the Sun's gravity, feeble at such a great distance. Voyager 1 passed above the orbit of Pluto in May 1988, and Voyager 2 will pass beneath Pluto's orbit in august 1990. But even at speeds of over 35,000 mph, it will take nearly 20,000 years for the Voyagers to reach the middle of the comet swarm, and possibly twice this long for them to pass the outer boundaries of cometary space. By this time, they will have traveled a distance of two light-years, equivalent to half of the distance to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star. "
Voyager crash lands on this deep and remote planet..as each of its systems start to shutdown in turn, its external microphones pick up the voice of Charleston Heston, screaming in the distance "Take your paws off me you damn dirty ape!"....
;-)
[muffled horse hooves pounding on the ground]
Voyager 1 signing off. Goodbye earth...
For those interested in scientific accuracy, there is a little bit of misinformation in the statement:
What scientists are speculating is that Voyager 1 has reached termination shock, which is the where the solar wind first meets interstellar plasma.
Heliopause is the outer boundary of the solar wind. This Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) from June 24, 2002 provides a nice graphically illustrated explanation of Heliopause and Terminal Shock.
It will take a number of years more for Voyager 1 to reach heliopause. Voyager 1 is currently about 90 AUs away. Heliopause is speculated to exist at 110 to 150 AUs.
Dunno what CPU?
National Park Service Entrance Signs
Homelessness and poverty will always exist under captialism. I am not saying that this is good or bad, I am saying that we do not live in the Star Trek utopian society in which there are jobs that pay enough for people to survive available for everyone.
You might be able to teach someone to fish, but the but at some point the economy may not have any need for more fishermen (or whatever other job skill). All the unempolyed coders reading this can attest to this.
The spacecraft in question wasn't Voyager, but PIONEER 10. My point stands however, that having probes in the far reaches of space away from the solar system will be extremely valuable in the study of theories of gravity. Here's a link to a good place to start. A good Google search is "pioneer anomalous acceleration"
Near the end of the article I linked, they explain that this effect is not observed with Voyager because of the way Voyager is stabilized by boosters (as opposed to spin-stabilization for Pioneer). If the effect is occurring with Voyager it is completely swamped by the booster accelerations. They also indicate that (obviously) the best way to continue studying this is to launch another probe outside of the solar system.
If you spend any time researching this, you'll find groups of people all over the place who claim to have explained it. But none of them agree with each other. I think it's accurate to say that nobody REALLY knows what's happening.
Simple concept, drop a nuclear bomb behind a craft, and ride the shock wave forward. Needs a pushing plate, shock absorbers, etc of a good magnitude, but the system can and does work.
Great idea. We'll build it, you get in the ship, and then after we detonate the bomb we'll design an atomic spatula to remove you from the rear end of the space ship.
Without manipulation of gravity, the fastest humans can possibly accelerate is a few times the acceleration of Earth's gravity. And to get to decent speeds with that kind of acceleration takes a very long sustained force. You would need a giant spring lightyears long which could somehow magically not shred itself or melt under the kind of stress you're describing. You'd have better luck designing the spatula.
What I'm really interested in finding out is: now that we have something that's reached or passed the heliopause, will the mysterious deceleration our probes have encountered cease?
No one has any idea what is causing the slow-down. Dark matter? Interstellar anti-gravity? Who knows? It's...mysteeerious! Maybe it has something to do with the heliopause.
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
Working at NASA a few years ago I saw an old painting of voyager's path through space over the next several million years. In that time it will pass close (relatively speaking) to more than a half a dozen stars. For a moment I was taken into this artist's imagination, and saw the vision of humanity setting out on a voyage far beyond all previous scope of space and time. I returned this year to where the painting had been and it was gone. Speaks a lot for the problems facing NASA from inside and out.
Never trust the mainstream media to get a science story right!
r .html
Voyager 1 *might* have reached the Termination Shock--NOT the heliopause. The termination shock is where the solar wind--electrically charged (ionized) hydrogen atoms blown off the surface of the sun--slows from 700,000-1.5 million miles per hour, down to under 250,000 mph. This indicates it's getting nearer to interstellar space because the solar wind is getting weaker, and it's having more trouble pushing against the interstellar winds of the galaxy. The termination shock lies somewhere between 80 and 100 AU. Between the termination shock and the heliopause (the true edge of the solar system), is the "heliosheath" region--kind of the Siberia of our solar system (distant, cold, dark). The heliopause lies around 120-150 AU.
In effect, Voyager 1 may have reached the outtermost region of our solar system (which no craft has ever done before), but it still has 10-20 years to go to reach interstellar space. Here's NASA's press release. Note they say Voyager is about to reach the solar system's final frontier--not the edge of the solar system:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/1105voyage