Slashdot Mirror
Voyager 1 Crosses The Termination Shock
SubstormGuy writes "In a scientific session at the AGU meeting in New Orleans this morning, Dr. Ed Stone presented clear evidence that Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock last December. The scientists in the room applauded when the announcement was made."
if NASA does not terminate the project to favor Bush's push to put humans on Mars, the Voyager 1 has enough power to last another 15 years (2020). in that case, they should be able to retain enough data to calculate what is going on in the heliosheath and beyond. I don't think 'hot' is used to describe a location that is 7 billion miles from the sun :-} .. but they should be able to calculate a close temperature based on the distance and magnetic fields among many other factoring (IANAS)
do you have shinyfeet?
The termination shock is basically where the wind of the sun meets "the wall" -- as known as interstellar medium.
You know about the solar wind. It's basically a stream of particles flowing out of the Sun's atmosphere at a supersonic speed. The particles would cruise radially out of the Sun and go on and on and on...until it meets a clump of gas associated with semi-primodial stuffs that the Sun and other neighboring stars were made out of. Imagine that the Sun is sitting in a void of space (the emptiness was due to the solar wind sweeping out the material around it).
Anyway, as the particles in the solar wind nears the wall, the particles in the solar wind begins to "feel" the presence of a wall. It's like a wind hitting a building and twirl near the wall of the building. A similar thing happens here and the sensors on board Voyager can sense the motion of these particles "twirling" around. In this case, these particles are slowing down and that's what Voyager I has detected.
As for the precise timing? I don't think there is a clear signature of the "termination" point. It might have been in 2003 or in Dec 2004. In the astronomical standpoint, the distinction is, I believe, not so meaningful.
Phew. That's alot to write. I'd better go to bed now.
the bbc http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4576623.stm has some more info on this. You should know that they are not 100% it has crossed the termintation shock. "Some researchers thought the probe had arrived at the shock; others thought it still had some way to go. Now, at the 2005 Joint Assembly meeting organised by the American Geophysical Union, space scientists say they are confident - and agreed - that Voyager has gone beyond the termination shock and is flirting with deep space. Predicting the location of the termination shock was hard, the researchers say, because the precise conditions in interstellar space are unknown. Also, changes in the speed and pressure of the solar wind cause the termination shock to expand, contract and ripple. The most persuasive evidence that Voyager 1 has crossed the termination shock is its measurement of a sudden increase in the strength of the magnetic field carried by the solar wind, combined with an inferred decrease in its speed. This happens whenever the solar wind slows down."
Just goes to show that maybe a source that ANYONE can stick any random crap into might not be the most reliable.
Not really, in this case it showed that an article that's out of date may not be correct. I mean, the new information was just now announced. To clarify, these articles now seem to be correct according to my source, and read:
- "Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab believe that Voyager entered the termination shock in February 2003."
- "Evidence presented at the AGU meeting in New Orleans in May 2005 by Dr. Ed Stone suggests that the Voyager I spacecraft passed termination shock in December 2004."
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
For those who want to know what a termination shock looks like: Clicky.
Where are we now? There's almost nothing in the pipeline and NASA's sucking every dime out of science to feed the shuttle and ISS programs. We've got another decade of good stuff from existing probes, but after that we better hope ESA, Japan and China take up the slack.
Major Probes from the past 3 years:
-Deep Impact
-Gravity Probe B
-Messenger
-MER's
-Spitzer Space Telescope
Major probes slated for launch in next 3 years:
-MRO
-Dawn
-Mars Phoenix Lander
-Kepler
Right...