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Voyager 1 Beyond Solar Wind
healeyb noted that Voyager 1 has now reached a distance from the sun where it is no longer able to detect solar wind. Launched in 1977 to get up close and personal with our solar system's gas giants, scientists estimate that in another 4 years it will cross the heliosphere.
At what point does it become sentient, call itself V-ger, and return to destroy earth?
Developers: We can use your help.
It's going to fall off the edge of the universe. I just know it.
17.5 billion kilometres and counting, over 3 decades spent hurtling away from from the sun, and still less than 0.05% of the way to the nearest star
We humans are really really really small.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
The fact we are still able to communicate with a piece of 33 year old technology (I'm only a few years older myself, and possibly not in as good a shape either) further away than any man made object ever launched, and are still getting useful science from it is nothing short of remarkable - matched only Spirits extended mission time so far, IMHO. And then, sometimes we can't even launch a satellite or two properly..
are still probably cheaper per kB than sending an SMS ...
I would say that the ping time is probably at par with the ping time of the protocol described in RFC 1149, a.k.a. IPoAC.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Since it is almost the same age as me, I feel a kinship with the little guy. It's amazing that it's still sending back readings after all theses years and millions of miles travelled in the deep dark infinite space. Onward to interstellar space! Godspeed!
With how well NASA's gear works long after their mission is complete perhaps they should start selling toys and cars to fill in all those budget holes that they have.
but we think big.
It's fascinating to think that in just about four years the first man-made object will leave our solar system. And to think that only a little over 100 years ago we were still trying to get ourselves airborne. We've come a long way. I wish I knew what we'd be doing 100 years from today.
er... picking through radioctive rubble and looking for a scrap to eat? ... avoiding Triffids?
Voyager probes are frigging HUGE. why cant we launch the same thing twice, but have them assemble in orbit and give it a chemical kick in the ass to get the slingshotting down and then when it get's it's last slingshot around juipeter kick in the Ion engines to do a long hard burn for a few years to get the thing really hauling ass.
I'll bet with current tech we can get past Voyager 1 within 10 years AND have better instruments, a stronger transmitter, far more sensitive receiver, etc.... Seriously. NASA could do this right now and we might see a flyby of another star within a 200 year window.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I am not an astrophysicist, so I don't understand the subtelties of this, but it should be noted that NASA press release says the probe has measured a solar wind decline, not that the probe is beyond the solar wind. Specifically, it says the solar wind has 'no outward motion'. The probe's environment is still dominated by the solar wind because it is still in the heliosphere, or, as NASA says, 'Crossing into interstellar space would mean a sudden drop in the density of hot particles and an increase in the density of cold particles.'
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20101213.html
Now hurtling toward interstellar space some 17.4 billion kilometers (10.8 billion miles) from the sun, Voyager 1 has crossed into an area where the velocity of the hot ionized gas, or plasma, emanating directly outward from the sun has slowed to zero. Scientists suspect the solar wind has been turned sideways by the pressure from the interstellar wind in the region between stars.
...
Scientists believe Voyager 1 has not crossed the heliosheath into interstellar space. Crossing into interstellar space would mean a sudden drop in the density of hot particles and an increase in the density of cold particles. Scientists are putting the data into their models of the heliosphere's structure and should be able to better estimate when Voyager 1 will reach interstellar space. Researchers currently estimate Voyager 1 will cross that frontier in about four years.
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
http://xkcd.com/695/
Warning: may make some readers cry.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Yes, there are, but SMS uses a reduced character set and so seven bits per character. It's 140 bytes to represent 160 characters. That's my understanding at least, backed up by a cursory google. I could of course be wrong.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Voyager is travelling 38,000 mph, directly away from the Sun. If its sensors no longer feel the push of the Solar Wind its because the wind is now going slower, say 37,999 mph, but not yet zero mph as the article title might imply. The wind is most likely still there, we just can not sense it anymore with the technology aboard the spacecraft.
Wow, just wow! Not even a 6502. The Voyagers used a trio of 1802s clocked at 6.4MHz. Just goes to show what you can do with a specific bit of hardware and tight code.
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
I remember seeing photos of Jupiter in Aviation Week magazine at a library (hey kids, this was the first time people saw such details of Jupiter's clouds, Red Spot, etc. so it was really impressive). I was seriously thinking of stealing those pages, but backed off. I later got nice prints from NASA (which they gave away back in the 20th century). It was so cool to see such detail when best we had were images from ground based telescopes, or nice paintings from artists.
When Pioneer 11 past Saturn, they discussed the E ring, F ring, G ring, then debating designations of other rings. Then Voyager passed by and they just gave up naming all the rings (maybe they did, but Voyager images showed "thousands" of rings).
Also back then NASA still had the best "special effects."
mfwright@batnet.com
You're all clear, kid, now let's *blow* this thing and go home!