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It's Official: Voyager 1 Is an Interstellar Probe
astroengine writes "After a 35-year, 11-billion mile journey, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft left the solar system to become the first human-made object to reach interstellar space, new evidence from a team of scientists shows. 'It's kind of like landing on the moon. It's a milestone in history. Like all science, it's exploration. It's new knowledge,' long-time Voyager scientist Donald Gurnett, with the University of Iowa, told Discovery News. The first signs that the spacecraft had left the solar system's heliopause was a sudden drop in solar particles and a corresponding increase in cosmic rays in 2012, but this evidence alone wasn't conclusive. Through indirect means, scientist analyzing oscillations along the probe's 10-meter (33-foot) antennas were able to deduce that Voyager was traveling through a less dense medium — i.e. interstellar space." You can watch NASA's briefing on the probe's progress here.
http://xkcd.com/1189/
In a few billion years, some distant alien's house is going to have this thing pummeling through the roof.
We have plenty of our own problems here on Earth! Why is a government-built probe going into interstellar space? Is Obama trying to make health-care truly "universal"? I suppose if our own "illegal aliens" get free health care, why shouldn't Andromedans?
Keep alien overlords out of my health care!
They use the same math behind the Vista file copying progress bar to judge its distance.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Putin to America: You're Not Special
I'm sorry, Mr. Putin. I can't hear you over the sound of our own awesome.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
This story has already appeared on Slashdot multiple times:
March 2013
December 2011
December 2010
May 2005
November 2003
Is it too much to ask that the editors do their jobs and search for dupes before approving a submission?
My dear fellow slashdotter,
/.visitor you can request so by filing form 82BKO0E3#9320B/fsF-109 at your local Vogon station on each seventh Wednesday of the month on odd-numbered-months-even-numbered-years between 11:59 and 12:00AM or in the trash-bin whenever you feel like.
/.space council & climate change spindoctors.
Thank you for asking these questions in exactly the right place. I would like to offer you some answers to your questions. At first I tried to answer them from bottom to top, but I found out that each question has some relation to the previous one, so I did it top to bottom. My sincere excuses for the delay coming forth from my misconception. Again, this IS the best place to ask these questions! For your convenience I have put a 'Q' in front of your question, and an 'A' in front of the Answer.
Q> What *is* space exploration? When something like the humble Voyager 1 probe can continue giving usable data for such a long time, it should cause us to ask, why haven't our other missions been as successful?
A> Space exploration is the exploration of the stuff on the outside of the planet earth (or Gaia as some seaweed-cracker eating nutjobs call it)
Q> The Mars rovers are another example. [xkcd.com] When you consider the scale and complexity of their task, the rovers comparatively performed on par with Voyager 1.
A> This is not really a way to ask something, is it?
Q> You might say, "We can't plan for what it does after the mission is over, that's kind of the point of having a defined *mission plan*" and to that I say 'hogwash'
A> Again, this is not really a proper way to ask something, is it? Please leave your comments on wired.com
Q> It is my firm belief that humans should be taking vacations on Luna *now* and soon stepping foot on Mars. We could do it. Why aren't we?
A> The main reason that we do not go on holiday on the moon, or Luna as some amateurs prefer, is usually one of the following:
1 - no bars
2 - no beaches with ladies in swimming attire
3 - more importantly: no beaches with ladies in half their swimming attire.
4 - (if you are a reader of the Guardian) no museums
5 - you *constantly* have to remember where your towel is.
6 - Flip-flops fit really badly on these so-called moon-boots.
7 - any of the above
Q> NASA is a tool. Are we using it to its fullest?
A> NASA is an abbreviation, or more specifically it is an acronym, not a tool. A hammer is an example of a tool.
Hopefully I answered your questions fully and may I add that the answers provided here are conclusive. If you somehow feel in need of a second opinion from another
With kind regards,
The
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