Voyager 1 Exits Our Solar System

eldavojohn writes "The first man-made craft to do so is now entering a 'cosmic purgatory' between solar systems and entering an interstellar space of the Milky Way Galaxy. With much anticipation, Voyager 1 is now 'in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system. Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back.' After three decades the spacecraft is still operating and apparently has enough power and fuel to continue to do so until 2020. The first big piece of news? 'We've been using the flow of energetic charged particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to estimate the solar wind velocity. We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically. For the first time, the wind even blows back at us. We are evidently traveling in completely new territory. Scientists had suggested previously that there might be a stagnation layer, but we weren't sure it existed until now.' This process could take months to years to completely leave the outer shell but already scientists are receiving valuable information."

Comments

Amazing

[ossuary]

It is just freaking amazing that things electronics can still work after being exposed to such an environment for so long. Good job Voyager and good job old school NASA. Just don't come back home in a few hundred years with a chip on your shoulder!

Re:Amazing

[ArsonSmith]

we can't even make mars rovers that last very long....ohh wait.

http://xkcd.com/695/

Re:Amazing

[ColdWetDog]

Well if you want to put the situation into perspective, Voyager one has been going on for 34 years and has YET to leave the solar system. Another 10 years and it will find itself on the threshold of interstellar space. And then no more power it will go dead. Think about it, 47 years in space and it will barely have reached the begining of interstellar space. Half the lifetime of a human being (more or less) and our fastest spacecraft is still right by our home. If this doesn't drive home just how far we are from really reaching into space nothing will.

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..." (HHGG)

Re:Amazing

[aardvarkjoe]

As usual with the xkcd comics that people always link to, there was somebody else who did it better...

http://www.theonion.com/articles/mars-rover-beginning-to-hate-mars,2072/

Re:11 Billion

[Deadstick]

Shit, some of those distances are astronomical.

rj

Obligatory pirate jokes

[zill]

'We've been using the flow of energetic charged particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to estimate the solar wind velocity. We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically. For the first time, the wind even blows back at us.

Arrrgh, trim yer sails, and steady on, mate.

Next fortnight we shall leave the solar system and finally escape from the RIAA.

Half of the success is a good name

[Delirium Tremens]

Of course, it would travel well with a name like 'Voyager'. It is not like we had called it Phobos-Grunt. I mean, come on, phobos means 'fear' in Greek. And grunt, well, that just does not sound good.

Did it hit the wall holding creation yet?

[bigsexyjoe]

I'm pretty excited for when Voyager crashes into the wall at the edge of creation. Then all the angels will fly in and all the sinners who believe in dinosaurs will be SOORRRY.

Re:This is what happens when Americans make things

[yodleboy]

Whatever. I distinctly remember from Back to the Future that all the best stuff is made in Japan. And that was in 1985, so there!