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Voyager 1 Beyond Solar Wind

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the merging-with-the-infinite dept.

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.

6 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. 17.5 billion kilometers by oldspewey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?
    1. Re:17.5 billion kilometers by crunchygranola · · Score: 5, Interesting

      True, Voyager 1 has only travelled a short way between stars within our galaxy -- but here is a cool fact (I think).The Milky Way Galaxy is moving relative to the rest of the Universe (as defined by the Cosmic Microwave Background frame of reference) at 279 ± 68 km/sec, just under 0.1% the speed of light. This is the speed with which we are moving through the Universe. Thus if you live to be 80 years old (a typical lifespan today) you will die in a region of the Universe 0.074 light years from where you were born, and the first pyramids were built in Egypt in a region of the Universe more distant than Alpha Centauri.

      --
      Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
  2. Data transfers by Picardo85 · · Score: 5, Funny

    are still probably cheaper per kB than sending an SMS ...

    1. Re:Data transfers by john83 · · Score: 5, Interesting
      From here,

      The total cost of the Voyager mission from May 1972 through the Neptune encounter (including launch vehicles, radioactive power source (RTGs), and DSN tracking support) is 865 million dollars.

      and

      A total of five trillion bits of scientific data had been returned to Earth by both Voyager spacecraft at the completion of the Neptune encounter.

      That's $0.001384 per bit. There are 1120 bits in an SMS message. That's about $1.55 per SMS. Not exactly cheap, but then Vodafone don't have coverage beyond Pluto.

      --
      Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
  3. We humans may be small by arcite · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but we think big.

  4. CPU - lowly RCA 1802 by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.