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

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

[MichaelSmith]

Well there is New Horizons.

Re:When does it become V-GER?

[ipquickly]

AND the above is WHY we don't dream big anymore.

One of the greatest achievements of technology to talk about and all we can do is compare it to a tv show and outdated movie from almost decade ago. And this will happen every time we bring it up.

We deserve the future we get.

You're kidding, right?

Here from Wikipedia:

Cultural influence of Star Trek

"Many scientists and engineers claim that their professional and life choices were influenced by Star Trek. The inventor of the first non-vehicular cell phone, Martin Cooper, states he was motivated to develop it from watching Star Trek."

or from The Guardian:

Star Trek technology: how 21st century scientists are making it so

"Many have been inspired by Star Trek to become scientists, and some are starting to make its gadgetry a reality"

I'm certain Star Trek was one of the top reasons many of the engineers at NASA became interested in engineering in the first place.

Re:Littering

[mark-t]

no... we're about to accomplish extra-solar travel. Interstellar travel would actually entail reaching another star.