Voyager 1 Sends Messages from the Edge

dalmozian writes "NASA's Latest News about the Voyager 1 is being run on Sci-Tech. The Voyager has passed into the border region at the edge of the solar system and now is sending back information about this never-before-explored area, say scientists at the University of Maryland. From the article: 'Voyager 1 and its twin spacecraft Voyager 2 are now part of a NASA Interstellar Mission to explore the outermost edge of the sun's domain and beyond. Both Voyagers are capable of returning scientific data from a full range of instruments, with adequate electrical power and attitude control propellant to keep operating until 2020.'" The proof of crossing the termination shock was covered earlier this year but now we can see the actual data.

Comments

Why are they cancelling funding...?

[barawn]

I actually got to see this data presented at a cosmic ray conference this summer. There are a few things you have to realize:

• This is the only astronomical shock we are able to study closely
  
• There are a lot of things we don't understand about shocks
  
• Voyager 2 is still working, with better instruments, and will reach the termination shock early
  
• We're seeing things we never, never expected
  

For instance, on the last bit, we expected to see cosmic rays from the termination shock, because shocks accelerate particles. We see them. But they don't appear to be coming from the shock. They're coming from somewhere else that we don't know. We see another set of cosmic rays (with a different spectrum) that we don't understand at all - we just call them "anomalous cosmic rays."

Also, inside the heliosphere, Voyager 1 kept crossing magnetic domains (so a needle on a compass would swing back and forth) periodically. It was expected after the shock that those domain switches would keep happening, much much faster. That didn't happen. In fact, the domain switches stopped. We don't understand why. That doesn't make a lot of sense.

This is our only probe and our only example of a large astronomical shock. It's full of information about how the Universe produces such violent outbursts like supernovae, or gamma ray bursts. We need to keep studying this.

i 0\/\/n0rZ t3h \/()j463r! woooot!

[Dogtanian]

Let's /. the voyager!

I thought about something along those lines a while back. More specifically, with most space probes, what's stopping a malevolant third party from sending their own control transmissions to a probe, and making it do their bidding?

My guess is that they might include some precautions nowadays, but what of probes from a few years back?

FOS

[oliverthered]

Couldn't they just open source Voyager and get a number of nations to fork the bill?

Re:Top 10 List

[deesine]

For being a site for nerds, I'm surprised that only you and I have heard of Dr. Schoch's findings and his subsequent run-ins with prominent Egyptologists.

For those unfamiliar with this man and his claims, go here.

Indeed, there is more mystery to the great pyramids than "how did they put such large stones in place?". Check it out.