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

Wow.

[doxology]

Those roaming charges must be astronomical!

Re:Wow.

[GillBates0]

On the other hand, the signal quality is stellar.

Re:Wow.

[doxology]

With that sort of cost, it would suck to cross the event Verizon and be pulled into a Cingular-ity.

Re:Wow.

[hamburger lady]

still not as bad as my sprint bill.

Re:Wow.

[DeadVulcan]

...it would suck to cross the event Verizon and be pulled into a Cingular-ity.

Where is that "+1 Funny-to-some-but- may-induce-vomiting- in-others" moderation I've always wanted?

Top 10 List

[AKAImBatman]

My attempt at humor. (Stand back.)

You might be an astrophysicist if:

10. You only refer to the ninth planet as "Pluto-Charon"
9. You constantly correct everyone that Pluto-Charon is sometimes the eighth planet.
8. You've throttled someone for joking about "The Borg" when you mentioned Wolf 359.
7. You are of the opinion that there are only 8 planets in the solar system.
6. You get booted out of the family reunion for constantly correcting "scientific" conversations.
5. You think that the slowdown of the Pioneer Space Probe is a more important mystery than the Pyramids.
4. The last JPL probe burst at least 10 of your pet theories.
3. You punched Neil Armstrong for "contaminating" the moon with human presence.
2. You passed out before Neil's return punch landed.

And the number one way to tell you're an astrophysicist is...

1. You hold your breath in awe as a probe sends back data on inky blackness.

Thank you, thank you! I'll be here all week! (Ok, ok. So the rest of the gags all sprung out of the number one "joke". Try not to groan too much.) :-P

Re:Top 10 List

[Anonymous Coward]

5. You think that the slowdown of the Pioneer Space Probe is a more important mystery than the Pyramids.

Mystery no more?

Re:Top 10 List

[AKAImBatman]

That's one theory that's been suggested, but there are many more. While the RTG explanation seems most likely, many scientists hold to the idea that the RTG doesn't produce *enough* thrust to cause the anomaly.

Re:Top 10 List

[Fallingcow]

Indeed, there are many theories. We should avoid intellecual stagnation by teaching only one of them. I demand that we teach Intelligent Slowing in the classroom! ... bye bye, karma :(

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.

Re:Top 10 List

[jc42]

Isn't the Earth-Moon system also technically a binary planet?

Yeah, some astronomers have suggested that. The problem is, as explained in an adjacent article, the term "planet" has never actually had a proper astronomical definition. There's an IAU panel working now to settle the terminological debate. The current proposal is that "planet" by itself be delisted as an astronomical term. They suggest that a modifier be required before "planet".

Part of the debate is that there's a significant crowd that objects to classification terms that depend on things that are not properties of the object. Or, at least, we should make a strict distinction between terms that describe an object, and terms that describe its relationship to other objects.

This would mean, for example, that the question of whether Luna and Titan are planets or moons would be answered "Yes." They are planets that are orbiting another planet as moons. But others insists that they won't allow something to be both a planet and a moon.

The Earth-Luna pair is an interesting case, because it's somewhat borderline. The common center of gravity is inside the Earth, but close to the surface. Another interesting bit of trivia is that the Lunar path around the Sun is everywhere convex (relative to the Sun) This means that it's more accurate to describe Earth-Luna as a pair that share an orbit around their common primary, rather than one orbiting the other.

But it's all rather silly, because there's no agreed-on definition of "planet". The term just refers to a historical list that is looking less and less relevant with time.

Anyway, stay tuned. Maybe the IAU will settle the matter, at least for those of us who consider their opinion important. Most likely, they'll just discard the term. If they do define it as an isolated term, the result will be a rewriting of the list of planets in the Solar System, as the current list is starting to look somewhat inappropriate.

It's too bad that the universe isn't cooperative enough to fit into a classification scheme that someone invented a few centuries back.

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.

Re:Why are they cancelling funding...?

[swb]

I'm not a scientist, and it seems weird to me that they would stop spending money on something that still works and gone someplace nothing else has. It just seems wasteful. And it's not like they can justify it by saying they'll have a replacement there tomorrow, either, since they won't.

I also thought it was weird that they had to authorize more spending when the rovers were still working past their estimated useful life. You've got a remote control car on fucking Mars that still works and somebody wants to just switch it off? It reminds me of rich kids who throw out good toys simply because they're bored with them.

I guess the space program has become just like any other corporate entity -- if it can't show glossy, short-term results that look good in :15 on the evening news, it's "not viable." Yay. Another triumph of modern civilization.

Re:Why are they cancelling funding...?

[nerdygeek]

Anomalous cosmic rays are particles accelerated at the termination shock. They are anomalous inasmuch as they have a different spectrum to the incredibly high energy cosmic rays that come from outside of the solar system. No-one knew what caused these particles originally so they were labelled "anomalous". In fact the unrolling of the spectrum of the ACRs was critical evidence that we had reached the TS. And I'm not sure what you mean when you say the energetic particles are "coming from somewhere else that we don't know"?

Whilst there's lots about the TS that is suprising and exciting and that we don't understand, it is not quite as mysterious as barawn makes out.

As for Voyager 2 - it has a fully working plasma instrument that will give direct measurements of the plasma temperature, density, pressure, flow speed and so on, something we didn't have for V1. Is was the lack of proper plasma measurements that led to some teams claming V1 had crossed the TS and then recanting these claims.

Re:Why are they cancelling funding...?

[Pchelka]

I was not involved in the decision to cancel funding for Voyager, but I have had some involvement in the process that NASA uses to review missions and decide which spacecraft operations to keep funding. I'm relatively low on the totem pole, so don't blame me if you don't like the funding decisions NASA makes. I don't always like them either!

I suspect that some of the issues considered were the numbers of new publications from Voyager data compared to the more recent missions, the status of Voyager's instruments, and the ability of our ground stations to pick up signals from the spacecraft. These issues come up with any older NASA mission and are not unique to Voyager.

I agree that the data from Voyager about the termination shock are important - this was one of the reasons why funding to operate Voyager has continued as long as it has. However, there aren't really a whole lot of data from the termination shock, so a relatively small group of people are studying this data. This means a lower science return for the money spent, at least in terms of the numbers of papers published using new Voyager data. Some of the more recent unmanned spacecraft are also in danger of being cut, and there are still hundreds of scientists around the world working on data from these missions.

While it is true that Voyager is providing a unique data set, the data from this spacecraft are from older instruments that may not be running at their optimal capacity. We have missions with newer, far superior instruments studying other regions of our solar system right now. So which does NASA choose to keep operating - the older spacecraft with limited capabilities, or the newer missions with greater potential for science? When you look at it this way, it doesn't seem quite so bad to cut funding for Voyager, even though the recent discoveries from Voyager have been very newsworthy.

One of the other posts claimed that the termination shock is the only astrophysical shock we can study so we need to keep funding Voyager. It isn't entirely true that the termination shock between our heliosphere and the interstellar wind is the ONLY astrophysical shock we can study. A shock in a space plasma is a shock no matter where it is, and they all are pretty similar. The same physical processes happen in coronal mass ejections from the Sun, at the Earth's bow shock, at the bow shocks of Saturn and Jupiter, and near the heliosphere's termination shock. The main differences between these shocks are the magnetic field strengths and the scale sizes of the shocks. Other than that, the physics is pretty much the same. So NASA has to make a choice - spend the money to support research on all of these other things, or spend it to keep an aging spacecraft going to study just one region of space.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sad to see the Voyager mission winding down. It
would be great to see more discoveries from beyond the boundaries of our solar system. Unfortunately, we can't keep Voyager going forever. We just have to leave some discoveries for future generations.

Too bad they're going to stop listening

[AdamBlom]

As mentioned on Slashdot in April of this year, NASA is planning to terminate funding to the Voyager programs. SpaceDaily has an article from earlier this year that says that funding is not available for the seven older missions (Voyager, Ulysses, Polar, Wind, Geotail, FAST and TRACE) beyond the end of NASA's fiscal year, which ends in October. Given the fact that Voyager only costs $4.1M a year, hopefully someone will realize that it's not really an effective cost saving measure before they pull the plug!

Re:Too bad they're going to stop listening

[Karma_fucker_sucker]

Here's another article about the funding cut.

I just don't get it. Multi-billion dollar projects and/or pork just sail through Congress, but something that's actually producing some unique and useful (redundant?) data has to struggle for a few million dollars.

Must...stop...now...rant...coming...on...and...p olitical...aaarrrrgggg!

Re:Too bad they're going to stop listening

[FlynnMP3]

To think that something manmade is at the outer limits or our solar system boggles the mind! Instellar distances are almost unfathomable, but now we have a small inkling of what they are. It would be great to get empirical data from that region.

I am saddened to the extreme that useful, scientifically important research is going to be cancelled because of lack of funds. What makes this even worse is is takes so long to get out there, and these are the only 2 satellites that are close. Another opportunity won't come for decades!

I am sure each research project has their own concerns and ideals, but COME ON! Can't this at least count for something?!? Just a little bit more to count in it's favor?

*sigh*
Now I am depressed.

Re:Too bad they're going to stop listening

[standards]

Given the fact that Voyager only costs $4.1M a year, hopefully someone will realize that it's not really an effective cost saving measure before they pull the plug!

Whoa! I think you need a SERIOUS reality check. Do you realize what one can do with $4.1 MILLION a year? You crazy space cadets only think of yourself, and not the needs of this country:

1. We could rebuild Trent Lott's house in New Orleans
2. We could give a federal tax rebate to a person that earns $15 million/year
3. We could have a series of meeting with the oil industry executives - including a nice catered lunch
4. The government could support a mismanaged airline for an entire day

So before you just jump around throwing away our hard-earned money, please think of those in need.

Re:Too bad they're going to stop listening

[Fulcrum of Evil]

6. We could build one support beam for a bridge in Alaska that nobody actually wants.

Sadly

[lateralus_1024]

Sadly that message was: "A/S/L/Pic"

Voyager's message to the extraterrestrials

[jzeejunk]

from TFA The Voyagers each carry a message to any extraterrestrials they might encounter. Each messages is carried by a phonograph record -- a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.
To find out more about the message - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record

In related news...

[adolfojp]

VGER called... ...and he wants to speak to the creator.

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?

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

[Thanatopsis]

Yeah sure all we need is a deep space antenna and we will total own it. Oh yeah I don't have one of those.

Re:And the message was..

[AuMatar]

Actually, it was "My name is V'ger".

How government works

[Mr. Underbridge]

I also thought it was weird that they had to authorize more spending when the rovers were still working past their estimated useful life. You've got a remote control car on fucking Mars that still works and somebody wants to just switch it off? It reminds me of rich kids who throw out good toys simply because they're bored with them.

Ya gotta understand how government works. It's not that someone was actively trying to get these projects defunded - it's just that there was no money allocated for that, since no one anticipated they'd still be working. And since all government work has to be charged to specific accounts, someone would have had to redo that, or else the project would have had no way to spend any money.

In other words, this is a matter of bureaucracy, not malignance.

Voyager 1 Sends Messages from the Edge

[lateralus_1024]

How does Bono feel about this?

FOS

[oliverthered]

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