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

For those of us alive when this was launched,

[Anonymous Coward]

This is truly a triumph of modern science and unfortunately we do not dream big like this anymore. We are limited to our own backyard. The moon, Mars, etc. Such a shame.

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

[MichaelSmith]

Well there is New Horizons.

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

[interkin3tic]

We don't dream this big anymore? Since Voyager left earth, we sequenced the human genome, along with the genomes of nearly 200 other organisms. The computer that lives in my pocket is so much better than the computers on board Voyager that I can't even figure out how to compare them. Granted, I only spent 5 minutes skimming wiki articles trying to do so, but I'll also point out that 5 minutes of research got me the name of all the units on board the voyager, and way too much information for me to handle on that. 5 minutes of research at Voyager's time would maybe result in "finding the right world book letter." And it wouldn't have that information.

Putting a big rocket and a nuclear power supply on something and sending it off into space is awe-inspiring, yes, but I'd argue we're dreaming much bigger today. The internet changed the world a lot more than the space age did.

(Note that I'm not knocking the space age, and am fully aware that it's unlikely the internet would have come about were it not for the space age.)

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

[elashish14]

Space age research is still alive and well too. GP's comment comes on the heels of this and this, not to mention that we're also seeing potential earths in other solar systems for the first time ever! plus at the same time learning even more about awesome our own home is.

Maybe the public at large is more concerned about which husband/wife the latest Kardashian is on, but the age of the geeks is accelerating far faster than any it ever has, and it will continue to do so as long as there is the tiniest of means.

And while we're on it, let's not forget that we're also thinking smaller than ever before. How long has it been since we isolated the Higgs Boson???

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

[gman003]

We're spotting exoplanets faster than we can name them. We just landed a fucking nuclear-powered, laser-wielding science tank on Mars. Two years ago we dive-bombed the moon so we could search the debris cloud for signs of water. New Horizons is planned to leave the solar system as well once it's done with Pluto. We've got probes around Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Vesta, and whole damn fleets around the Moon and Mars, with another probe en route to Jupiter. We've got a company planning to mine the freaking asteroid belt. The ISS is constantly manned - I get Twitter pics *every* *day* from fucking *space*.

The hell we aren't dreaming big. The only reason Voyager is the only probe so far out is because it takes forty years to get there.

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.

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

[Concerned Onlooker]

Thirty nine years.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

> The computer that lives in my pocket is so much better than the computers on board Voyager..

I suspect the computer in your pocket won't still be working in 35 years.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

x = 42

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

[sFurbo]

I'm not sure, the planet alignment needed propel Voyager to 17 km/s was pretty unique to the 70's. For comparison, New Horizons will have a final speed of around 13 km/s.

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

[dkleinsc]

Who looks back on Bush as enlightened?

Mitt Romney?

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

[cusco]

Shrub tried to repeat his daddy's 'Mars Mission' publicity stunt, and with even less success. He attempted to cut NASA's funding every single year he was in office, and foisted a Pentagon bean counter on them as a 'leader'. Just like Bush The Elected, Shrub also refused to fund his glorious Mars mission. Commanded to do something extraordinarily expensive with no new moneys what choice did NASA have?

I don't like either of the two parties, but when it comes to science and exploration the Republicans are definitely the worse of the two.

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

[pixelpusher220]

If Obama had stayed with the Bush budget we'd be in a full blown depression right now. Google 'Bikini Graph' to see what Bush left Obama. We were losing 700,000+ jobs A MONTH at the end of Bush's term. In short order we had stopped that loss and started growing again, albeit slowly.

Borrowing money right now is as cheap as it ever has been. The 'cost' of deficit spending right now is literally trivial. Whereas reducing spending actually shrinks the economy. That million dollar contract that gets cancelled is literally a million dollars out of the economy. Not to mention the follow on effects as it spreads through the market. And it costs a few percentage points of that million dollars per year. Is it a long term solution? Of course not, but short term, you 'invest' in the economy and it will bounce back as there is now more 'demand' available.

IT's how Stimulus works. And for another example of Stimulus, look again at that Bikini Graph, notice a slight drop in the jobs under Obama? Guess when the stimulus money ended...

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.

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:It's sad....

[Bill Currie]

Angry Birds and Minecraft, I imagine. :/

Re:Which begs the question...

[ipquickly]

What does interstellar space taste like?

Bubbly, as the water boils of your tongue.

Re:It's sad....

[cmorriss]

How about the probes we have zipping around all over the solar system? Messenger is collecting tons of information about Mercury. Of course, our information on Mars is growing by leaps and bounds by the month and we have a probe on its way to Pluto due to arrive in a few years.

All done by NASA. The U.S. space program has continued to do great science since Voyager was launched and will continue into the future. Name another country that's even close.

The story that never dies

[Grayhand]

Remember years ago when it was first announced that Voyager was entering interstellar space? There was another announcement a year or two ago and now they are saying it's really really close. When I was growing up NASA was considered the most reliable department the government had. After all the budget cuts they've been so starved for big announcements they keep jumping the gun. I know this wasn't out of NASA but it's still a NASA project. The real news in the last week was Mercury but it got buried under higher profile non stories. It just breaks my heart to see this. If they want news releases give us more rover stories! We've got two functional rovers again on Mars and the older one gets no attention and the new one has been all but forgotten. I've seen some stunning images because I cruise geek sites but the general public sees nothing. NASA has got to get better at playing the press game. People still support Mars exploration but look at the ISS as the poster child for press boondoggles. It's been treated more like a secret military project in the press. It's been fully functional for years but other than stories about possibly abandoning it which started weeks after it was completed when is the last time the regular press had a story about what was actually going on in the space station itself, I'm not talking resupply missions. I'll bet the average person couldn't name a single accomplishment or even test run on the space station. I'd bet most people have completely forgotten about it. What's the point of all the science if no one ever hears about it??? Botched press releases and dead silence is slowly killing NASA.

Re:The don't make 'em like they used to

[pokoteng]

What happened to us engineers? Where did we go wrong?

We started listening to business requirements and started engineering for products that had x year lifespan which happens to be much shorter than older machines.

Given funding, we can probably make extraordinary machines now that can last for a millennia. We just don't because of cost and customer requirements to constantly upgrade to next new thing and dump the old with lesser features and looks.

Who's the "We" ?

[Taco Cowboy]

This is truly a triumph of modern science and unfortunately we do not dream big like this anymore. We are limited to our own backyard. The moon, Mars, etc. Such a shame.

If the "we" in question is NASA, your assertion is true.
 
However, if the "we" denotes the human race, nope, the dream is still on, and there are still people working towards achieving even greater goals.
 
People in Brazil, in Japan, in India, in China are working on projects that may take us (and the "us" here means human race) further.

Re:Who's the "We" ?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is truly a triumph of modern science and unfortunately we do not dream big like this anymore. We are limited to our own backyard. The moon, Mars, etc. Such a shame.

If the "we" in question is NASA, your assertion is true. However, if the "we" denotes the human race, nope, the dream is still on, and there are still people working towards achieving even greater goals. People in Brazil, in Japan, in India, in China are working on projects that may take us (and the "us" here means human race) further.

And you would be wrong as well. The fact is that NASA is still dreaming big. Putting man on the moon for 3 days is NOT that hard. It was that NASA planned it, and CONgress funded it, allowing them to get it done.
Now, NASA was striving to go to Mars and the moon in the 90's when the republicans gutted this effort. They made NASA stop work on things like Transhab and VASIMIR. The neo-cons wanted NASA spending to go into a different direction. Clinton opposed it as being short-sighted, but it was part of a deal to drop our deficit.
THis was followed with more gutting the ISS, post Columbia, but oddly, the most important piece of the ISS, the centrifuge, was gutted. This would tell us how to survive on the moon and mars. And yet, the neo-cons gutted this on item. Just amazing.
Then it was decided to kill off the shuttle (good, since it was costing too much money), and push for Constellation. However, again, CONgress, basically neo-cons, underfunded it so badly that the program was DOA. Thankfully, the 90's plan that NASA hatched to get private space going was funded for cargo only.
Now, Obama comes on and backs pushing private space, while killing off Constellation (it was dead anyways and just rotting). Yet, the neo-cons have worked their tails off to kill it and any attempt to leave the planet. They tried to kill the 1-2B for funding CCDev claiming a waste of money, while pushing the SLS for 20B telling NASA which contractors they would use. In particular, it was all of the contractors that were in CONgress critter's districts.
The neo-cons are STILL striving to kill off private space. In particular, NASA wants to fund PRIVATE fuel depot and various tugs for service. Some would be chemical, but others would be electrical (great for cargo). In addition, they want to get private space stations going, esp. Bigelow. These companies would then work together to put man on the moon and mars. NASA would simply lead the way, doing the hard R&D, while allowing private space to do the things that NASA has already R&D. With this approach, we will be on the moon by 2020, IFF the neo-cons are not allowed to gut NASA again.

NASA is dreaming big. It is one political party that is far more interested in keeping itself alive rather than worrying about our nation's future that is the problem.

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:Littering

[mark-t]

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

voids are hugely repulsive

[epine]

Man's pollution on a cosmic scale is essentially zero, the universe is already pre-polluted

The average density of the universe is about one proton per cubic meter. The vast majority of the visible universe is pristine vacuum. Plus, nearly every galaxy holds at its core a matter-disposal rip-heap of eternal safe-keeping.

Bear in mind that we now know there's a very small leak into the surrounding environment at around 60 nano-kelvin (*). Before we route too much of our crap to the galactic disposal unit, perhaps we should learn from our mistakes on the slimy blue marble and perform a rigorous environmental impact study on anthropogenic black-hole warming, just in case bumping it up to 61 nano-kelvins triggers a dark matter landslide. (By the "it's all about us, every time, and in every way" anthropic principle, every bulk coefficient of our local environment is fluttering around a precarious and exquisitely tuned value optimal to survival as we presently know it.)

(*) For simplicity I use the Hawking temperature for a solar mass black hole. From the equation at Wikipedia, this appears to scale inversely with mass. Possibly the right temperature involves division by another factor of 4 million to account for the correct mass of the galactic darth Timbit (local idiom for doughnut hole). I'm getting 15 femto-kelvins without a napkin. Let's not be brash and mess with this number anthropogenically without really thinking things through, to solve some minor problem with space-based pollution in some gossamer filigree of the pristine vacuum.

One would think it might be easier just to toss our junk in the direction of the Local Void. This, however, amounts to carting your garbage uphill.

Wikipedia: The Milky Way's velocity away from the Local Void is 270 kilometres per second (600,000 mph). Voids are hugely repulsive.

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.

The Gripes of Wrath

[XiaoMing]

What's with all the complaints? How is this not news for nerds?

We thought the heliosphere should have ended earlier. It (surprisingly, without sarcasm) hasn't. It's explained within the same summary what the expected metrics for such a boundary should be (a change in the direction of the magnetic field), as well as a quantification of the closeness (that extra-solar particles are making forays into Voyager's sensors) of said boundary.

Add a dash of the fact that we are able to communicate through outer space with four-decades old technology, and I'm really not seeing what there is to bitch about.

Oh and the Mars rover? Yeah it's still being analyzed whether the "complex hydrocarbons" are actually organic compounds, just like how it was still being analyzed whether the timing glitch in the LHC was a violation of general relativity. That is speculation, it's not news (at least not for nerds).