Voyager 1, So Close To Interstellar Space That We Can Taste It!

mphall21 writes "Voyager 1 is nearing the edge of the 'magnetic highway' of our solar system and scientists believe this is the final area the space probe must cross before entering interstellar space. The Voyager team infers this region is still inside of our heliosphere because the direction of the magnetic field has not changed. The direction of this field is expected to change when Voyager goes into interstellar space. 'Although Voyager 1 still is inside the sun's environment, we now can taste what it's like on the outside because the particles are zipping in and out on this magnetic highway,' said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. 'We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space. Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn't what we expected, but we've come to expect the unexpected from Voyager.' Moving at 10.5 miles per second, the space probe is the most distant man-made object from Earth. The space craft has been in operation for 35 years and receives regular commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network."

Comments

Which begs the question...

[Anonymous Coward]

What does interstellar space taste like?

Re:Which begs the question...

[ipquickly]

What does interstellar space taste like?

Bubbly, as the water boils of your tongue.

When does it become V-GER?

[p51d007]

I was 17 when this thing launched...remember it well, all the hoop-de-doo about that gold disk. Either the Klingons will get it, or maybe the Borg?

Re:When does it become V-GER?

[ipquickly]

I was 17 when this thing launched...remember it well, all the hoop-de-doo about that gold disk.
Either the Klingons will get it, or maybe the Borg?

Cmon, it's GOLD. The Ferengi will get it before anyone else even notices.

Re:When does it become V-GER?

[bigstrat2003]

No Ferengi would bother with it. They don't care about gold, merely the latinum that gold can act as an enclosure for.

Littering

[ipquickly]

We have enough trouble littering and leaving our useless garbage behind here on Earth. Now we are also littering in inter-stellar space.
Do you know how freaking big the ticket for this will be?

Re:Littering

[rubycodez]

that is a nonsensical point of view, the universe is mostly filled with litter. Metal asteroids and hydrocarbons and dirty ice balls, the amount of cubic miles of that in our own solar system alone is beyond human comprehension, Man's pollution on a cosmic scale is essentially zero, the universe is already pre-polluted

Re:Littering

[martinX]

And then I got a call from officer Obie-Wan. He said, "Kid, we found your name on a space probe at the bottom of a half a gigaton of
garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it." And I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie-Wan, I cannot tell a lie, I put that space probe
under that garbage."

Re:Littering

[bmo]

> Now we are also littering in inter-stellar space.
>Do you know how freaking big the ticket for this will be?

Arlo Guthrie might even make a song about it.

--
BMO

Re:It's sad....

[Bill Currie]

Angry Birds and Minecraft, I imagine. :/

Re:It's sad....

[Chuck Chunder]

Angry Birds seem to sponsor all sorts of things, why not space exploration?

An Angry Bird shaped vessel hurtling out of the solar system would be awesome though I guess we'd have to hope that aliens aren't green and porcine lest they get the wrong idea.

Re:For those of us alive when this was launched,

[19thNervousBreakdown]

And you'll get to experience the end of the world on December 21st, caused by those same probes!

We never suspected that the heliosheath, the stars and deep space, all of it, was an illusion, caused by odd refractions at the edge of the bubble that we live in. As Voyager 1 approaches, and touches the threshold, it gives slightly, and then ... *pop*

All of existence unravels, and turns inside out briefly before collapsing, the unlikely self-sustaining equation finally solving itself for x.

Still receiving commands?

[waynemcdougall]

What sort of commands are we sending?

"Keep going"
"Just keep going"
"Don't turn around and come back"
"Just a little bit further - just keep going"
"Nearly there - keep going"

Re:Still receiving commands?

[Kjella]

Well, "commands"... it's actually a recording of Celine Dion, it makes it go even faster trying to get away. They're considering doing a pan pipe album to power an interstellar probe next.

Re:For those of us alive when this was launched,

[Anonymous Coward]

x = 42

Re:For those of us alive when this was launched,

[dkleinsc]

Who looks back on Bush as enlightened?

Mitt Romney?