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Nasa's Voyager 2 Probe 'Leaves the Solar System' (bbc.co.uk)

The Voyager 2 probe, which left Earth in 1977, has become the second human-made object to leave our Solar System. From a report: It was launched 16 days before its twin craft, Voyager 1, but that probe's faster trajectory meant that it was in "the space between the stars" six years before Voyager 2. The news was revealed at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in Washington. And chief scientist on the mission, Prof Edward Stone, confirmed it.

He said both probes had now "made it into interstellar space" and that Voyager 2's date of departure from the Solar System was 5 November 2018. On that date, the steady stream of particles emitted from the Sun that were being detected by the probe suddenly dipped. This indicated that it had crossed the "heliopause" -- the term for the outer edge of the Sun's protective bubble of particles and magnetic field. And while its twin craft beat it to this boundary, the US space agency says that Voyager 2 has a working instrument aboard that will provide "first-of-its-kind observations of the nature of this gateway into interstellar space".

151 comments

  1. First by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ,..To launch is second to leave!

  2. Maybe not by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 5, Funny

    second human-made oblect to leave the solar system

    I wonder if there isn't some chunk of arrowhead embedded in an asteroid smashed off the Earth in some titanic collision.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not even a remote possibility. Last time that happened was long before humans existed (think dinosaurs) let alone humans who had advanced to making stone into an arrowhead.

    2. Re:Maybe not by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Yeah, it is possible that in the 8,000 years of Earth's history that happened at least once.

    3. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure an impact large enough to eject a arrowhead embedded in a rock would have been detrimental to humanity's continued existence.

    4. Re:Maybe not by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      But given Earth's escape velocity and dense atmosphere, it's extremely unlikely.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:Maybe not by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well maybe. I'll check the Bible to see if there is any record of it occurring.

    6. Re:Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps you missed the irony of earth being 4.5 billion years old not 8,000 (humanity also older than 8,000 years).

      and besides we don't want to eject it from earth... we want to eject it from the solar system... that's a significantly higher escape velocity to achieve via impact... odds are that arrow head would not be recognizable as created by humanity after such a collision...

    7. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention would be traumatic enough for anyone who survived globally that it would be embedded in our mythology. Clearly there was one hell of a flood in prehistoric times that scared the bejesus out of humanity at the time, but not much about giant rocks from god bouncing off earth...

    8. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget, UFOs are a thing

    9. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um no, not humanity. The flood scared a small portion of humanity who happened to be the authors of the best know work of fiction ever created.

    10. Re:Maybe not by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I wonder if there isn't some chunk of arrowhead embedded in an asteroid smashed off the Earth in some titanic collision.

      1) A collision of that magnitude (large enough to create ejecta) would likely be a mass extinction event. Humans have yet to experience one of those (from an asteroid).
      2) Other planets (especially Jupiter) would likely ensnare the newly created asteroid. Getting past them once is very unlikely to start with but getting past them, being just the right size to not cause a mass extinction event but large enough to create ejecta, then have the ejecta (now asteroid) getting past those same planets and all in the span in the last 100k years (hell, I'll give you all 400k years for proto-humans) and there being no recognizable evidence? Finding a unicorn being ridden by a leprechaun seems more likely.

      The chances of this happening are slim to start with but the chances of this happening while humanity existed and there being no clear evidence of it are beyond infinitesimally small. It's a neat thought experiment but that's all it is.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    11. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's in there:

      Lo did ye hammer of the Lord smote unto the cities of the wicked and cast their works unto the empty void of Dust.

    12. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *tips fedora*

    13. Re:Maybe not by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      The story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah? Turns out there is evidence of a midair meteorite explosion on the north end of the Dead Sea around 5000 BC. In other words, many biblical stories may be based at least partially on actual events. There is also evidence of a meteor crater in Greenland from around 14,000 years ago. So far, no evidence of a collision strong enough to knock man-made items into space, but it is still possible, albeit extremely unlikely.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    14. Re:Maybe not by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      That's odd. I searched for "meteorite" in the Bible and there weren't any results.

    15. Re: Maybe not by 110010001000 · · Score: 0

      Seems weird that an almighty being would need a hammer, but who am I to argue with History.

    16. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Epic of Gilgamesh?

    17. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That and the Deluge of Manu and The Great Flood of Gun-Yu...

    18. Re:Maybe not by SWPadnos · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's odd. I searched for "meteorite" in the Bible and there weren't any results.

      Did you search the original Hollerith version, or were you using the updated Unicode version?

      You've got to remember that there have been several translations (through EBCDIC and ASCII, with a short diversion through UTF8), and there's no direct translation for "meteorite" (the closest would be "comet" (U+2604, U+FE0F) or "shooting star" (U+1F320)).

      Gotta be careful when electronically searching ancient texts!

      --
      - The Sigless Wonder
    19. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      maybe he likes cosplay

    20. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently floods happen a lot.

    21. Re: Maybe not by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      A lot of cultures have mythologies regarding a large, devastating flood covering the world to lend credence to the idea that there was a significant flooding event at some point in human history. Now, whether it was a global event or just one far enough back to affect common ancestors is up for debate.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    22. Re: Maybe not by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Seems weird that an almighty being would need a hammer, but who am I to argue with History.

      He's not almighty. He can't defeat Iron Chariots.

      "And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    23. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're going to need a bigger boat.

    24. Re: Maybe not by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      A lot of cultures have mythologies regarding a large, devastating flood covering the world to lend credence to the idea that there was a significant flooding event at some point in human history. Now, whether it was a global event or just one far enough back to affect common ancestors is up for debate.

      Well, flooding has happened all over the world many times- in the old days before dams and river controls the paths of rivers didn't even stay put. The history of China is strongly linked with the Yellow River suddenly flooding and it's course moving hundreds of miles.

      When all the world that you know about (which could only be an area of 10 square miles in an era when most people travelled by foot, not even horseback) quite possibly once every few generations they WOULD experience a flood that, to them, looked like it was covering the entire earth.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    25. Re: Maybe not by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

      Or of an interchange of legends/stories between cultures. Or an innate fear of flooding that makes a story about floods popular.

      The idea of a worldwide flood doesn't really make sense.

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    26. Re:Maybe not by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

      Other planets (especially Jupiter) would likely ensnare the newly created asteroid.

      This incredibly stupid. The chances of a random object shot out from earth being caught in Jupiter's gravity well is essentially zero. Space is big!

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    27. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If it is "he drave", then the lower case he is refering to Judah not Lord.
      Lord would be refered to with uppercase "He"

      Still, funny comment/observation

      If you don't like history, just rewrite it!

    28. Re:Maybe not by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

      The chances of a random object shot out from earth being caught in Jupiter's gravity well is essentially zero. Space is big!

      Sure, space is big but planets are moving very fast (relatively). It's like trying to stick your finger in an active industrial fan and pulling it out before a fan blade gets you. You're going to lose a digit.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    29. Re:Maybe not by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      I wonder if there isn't some chunk of arrowhead embedded in an asteroid smashed off the Earth in some titanic collision.

      Pretty sure that's all at the bottom of the ocean.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    30. Re: Maybe not by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      The whole central valley of California was under several feet of water during floods in 1862. If you take a 1000 year period anywhere in the world there's bound to have been at least one flood that covered the entire extent of the known world as the world was known in ancient times. Add on the tendency of storytellers to exaggerate about how much snow there was uphill both ways to school in their youth and it'd be amazing if any culture didn't have a world-drowning flood myth.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    31. Re:Maybe not by Solandri · · Score: 1

      I think OP was thinking of the few martian rocks which have fallen to Earth as meteors. Those were ejected from Mars via meteor or asteroid impacts, and eventually found their way to Earth.

      However, the delta-v needed to barely traverse from Mars to Earth is only 2.9 km/s. The delta-v needed to leave the solar system from Earth is a minimum 12.3 km/s, or 18x as much energy. And that's on top of the higher ejecta velocity needed to escape Earth's gravity well (more than twice that of Mars).

    32. Re:Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The chances of a random object shot out from earth being caught in Jupiter's gravity well is essentially zero. Space is big!

      Sure, space is big but planets are moving very fast (relatively). It's like trying to stick your finger in an active industrial fan and pulling it out before a fan blade gets you. You're going to lose a digit.

      You're assuming that every object comes straight into our plate shaped galaxy from the edge.
      Think 3 dimensional. Like a light bulb hanging from a ceiling on a wire. Lots of ways to get to earth without passing any planets.

    33. Re: Maybe not by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 0

      Clearly there was one hell of a flood in prehistoric times that scared the bejesus out of humanity at the time

      Wasn't the flood from the old testament? You know, before Jesus. And I believe that "bejesus" is an Irish term. So probably a little bit later than when the flood was written about. Perhaps someone used a time machine to erase any records of the big rock. Or maybe the paradox of all of this really screwed up the timeline.

    34. Re: Maybe not by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      The idea of a worldwide flood doesn't really make sense.

      So there's no need to worry about rising sea levels then? ;-)

    35. Re:Maybe not by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      Genesis 19:24-25: Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
      That doesn't sound like a meteorite burst to you?

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    36. Re:Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suddenly had an image in my mind of a religious schizm over whether the EBCDIC, ASCII, UTF-8, etc. version of the Bible are the One True Character Encoding.

      Obviously all the UTF-16 adherents should be burned at the stake.

    37. Re:Maybe not by quenda · · Score: 1

      But given Earth's escape velocity and dense atmosphere, it's extremely unlikely.

      "unlikely" just means it happens less often. The dinosaur-killer would have sent countless tonnes of earth-rock, some life-bearing, to Mars and beyond.
      Maybe none in the last 100ky to carry arrow-heads?

      BTW, Earth's escape velocity is not the limiting factor. To escape the solar system, allowing for earth's orbital velocity, you need to be expelled from the surface at more than double that speed.
          The Voyager probes reduced this by doing gravity-assist flybys.

    38. Re:Maybe not by quenda · · Score: 1

      Genesis 19:24-25:
      Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

      That doesn't sound like a meteorite burst to you?

      You'd have to be quite delusional to think that referred a meteorite rather than a volcano. "Sulphur" FFS!

      Also, 5000BC is far too early for any biblical influence. The Hebrew language itself only goes back to around 1000BC.

    39. Re:Maybe not by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      That's odd. I searched for "meteorite" in the Bible and there weren't any results.

      You didn't use the GoogleWebs properly. I found about a dozen.

    40. Re: Maybe not by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Was there ever a time when Homo Sapiens traveled that little? The natives here regularly traveled to the interior (300+ miles) by foot to trade as well as paddling to Hawaii to get laid, not to mention the 10,000+ miles they traveled from Africa and then there's their cousins who went on to the southern tip of S. America.
      The America's were covered with trails used by the natives and I'd assume likewise everywhere else.
      There were some huge floods at the end of the ice age as well which may have been remembered.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    41. Re: Maybe not by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Not like the sea is going to raise that much. Earthquakes lowering the land would be more notable and stick to the psyche compared to a slow raising of sea level.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    42. Re:Maybe not by cheesybagel · · Score: 2

      Quite a lot of stories in the Ancient Testament are basically lifted from older stories from the Middle East. Like how Noah's Ark is taken from an episode in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

      In another example, the Vedas (Hindu sacred teachings), used to be transmitted orally for several thousand years until they were written down much later.

      A lot of the knowledge we have from Greek myths is also a transcription of oral transmitted stories including Homer's Illyad and the Trojan War. The Indian Mahabharata may be another orally transmitted ancient war story.

    43. Re:Maybe not by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      I have heard other arguments claiming it was a volcanic eruption, kinda like the one in Pompey, and that the description makes more sense that way.

    44. Re:Maybe not by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      s/Pompey/Pompeii

    45. Re:Maybe not by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      To escape the solar system, allowing for earth's orbital velocity, you need to be expelled from the surface at more than double that speed.

      That's actually almost meaningless. You can no more achieve 17 km/s than you can achieve 11 km/s. Basically the problem is that the combination of high velocity and dense atmosphere at low altitude AND passive flight after ejection means you need to reach a HIGH initial velocity with a LARGE solid object (to survive the atmospheric exit), but that's only possible with a truly massive impact as you point out. In addition, besides hitting Earth in the first place, it would also probably have to hit a place where human artifacts are present in a protective sedimentary rock (to survive the ejection). Which means that the impactor would have to have hit very recently a place where there was human presence very early on - which is a small part of Africa, not the whole surface of Earth. We know of no such events, and in this case, it very likely means that no similar event happened.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    46. Re:Maybe not by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      A assuming a volcanic eruption provided enough energy to escape Earth's gravity, whatever was being ejected would be subjected to a huge amount of frictional heat. Also, it's not going to have a whole lot of velocity and it has billions of miles to travel, so this would need to happen a LONG time ago (and what the hell were they doing atop a mountain/volcano?). Since ancient arrowheads are made of rock, the frictional heat of the atmosphere would cause them to explode, much like meteorites do entering Earth's atmosphere. However, even if this arrowhead miraculously gets into space intact, it still is likely to be sucked up by our friendly neighborhood planets.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    47. Re:Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob#Propulsion_of_steel_plate_cap

    48. Re: Maybe not by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Was there ever a time when Homo Sapiens traveled that little? The natives here regularly traveled to the interior (300+ miles) by foot to trade as well as paddling to Hawaii to get laid, not to mention the 10,000+ miles they traveled from Africa and then there's their cousins who went on to the southern tip of S. America.
      The America's were covered with trails used by the natives and I'd assume likewise everywhere else.
      There were some huge floods at the end of the ice age as well which may have been remembered.

      Nomadic people obviously travelled more, but even they probably didn't travel far in the midst of flooding and storms.

      I daresay the majority of people in Western Civilizations prior to 1600 (unless they were military, clergy, or traders) probably never travelled more than 20 miles from their home in their entire lives, they had no reason to. When everything around them was flooded I daresay they travelled even less. :)

      In the era between proper civilization but after farming was discovered (so less migration) there were quite likely whole villages where no one in the village had left the immediate area. In the era between farming first being established and specialization in labour being established, leaving your farm would mean losing livestock or having your lands raided.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    49. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't mess with History.

    50. Re: Maybe not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +5.

  3. 41 years by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    41 years to exit the solar system. 13 billion miles. Max speed 36,000 mph. 0.00005% the speed of light. Pretty cool!

    1. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2 years to get from Earth to Jupiter, 2 more to Saturn, 4.5 to Uranus, 3.5 to Neptune, and an astonishing 29 to reach interstellar space. Truly amazing.

    2. Re:41 years by k6mfw · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You have summed up just how big our Solar System is and yet puny compared to the Milky Way galaxy (nice post). Though a screamer at 36K mph, a fraction of a snail's pace in terms getting to another star. Overall to think it was launched so many years ago, and think about various items on the spacecraft with company tags with model and serial numbers, and many of these companies no longer existing.

      --
      mfwright@batnet.com
    3. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These probes and the related projects are multi-generational in terms of people as well. Some of the children that were born at the launch date may now be involved in space projects and have families of their own.

    4. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "VGER will be back!" ..sorry, had to throw that in.

    5. Re:41 years by jd · · Score: 1

      The oldest company in the world was founded some time around 750 AD. That any company involved in building Voyager no longer exists is abysmal.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    6. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funnily enough, we could probably make a modern satellite that could reach it in half the time or less.
      Nobody would, though, monumental waste of money in todays climate. To be honest, I wouldn't blame them either. The only feasible, sensible reason to create such a craft would be to go Alpha Centauri, ALIENS, or Earth was dying and we sent out a fuckload of generation ships. "Just because" rarely gets you anywhere.
      Not even Elon is that wasteful with money and he launched a fucking car in to space.

      Plus, there is a bit of a bad thing ahead of both of these satellites - the oort cloud.
      I highly expect one or both of these to smash in to a rock at some point in the next 20 years. There is a shitload of them out there.
      Sure they aren't huge and are generally low density, but that density is still considerably higher than space in the solar system. Crap is being launched out of the solar system all the time because of the suns winds of particles constantly blasting it. That's where it ends up.
      The oort cloud is more dense than our orbit is, with respect to the silly number of satellites and ex-satellites we have zooming around there, if you scaled it up.

    7. Re:41 years by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The fastest man made object will be the modern Parker probe at 430,000 mph. That is 0.0006% the speed of light. To get to Alpha Centauri it would take 6810 years. There is no point trying to go to Alpha Centauri. Nothing would make the trip.

    8. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      great cut-and-paste job you fat retard.

    9. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

    10. Re:41 years by meglon · · Score: 5, Funny

      A space probe made of Twinkies, piloted by cockroaches.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    11. Re:41 years by habig · · Score: 1

      The fastest man made object will be the modern Parker probe at 430,000 mph. That is 0.0006% the speed of light. To get to Alpha Centauri it would take 6810 years. There is no point trying to go to Alpha Centauri. Nothing would make the trip.

      There's an ambitious, but possibly feasible concept for this, with R&D happening now: the Breathrough Starshot initiative. Short form: many small probes with solar sails being driven by lasers.

    12. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The fastest man made object will be the modern Parker probe at 430,000 mph. That is 0.0006% the speed of light. To get to Alpha Centauri it would take 6810 years. There is no point trying to go to Alpha Centauri. Nothing would make the trip.

      0.000639 times the speed of light
      0.0639% the speed of light
      still 6810 years though

    13. Re:41 years by Kjella · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Though a screamer at 36K mph, a fraction of a snail's pace in terms getting to another star.

      Yeah. The moon was hard. Mars is hard. But going interstellar... even if SpaceX built the BFR, boosted it to the max in a high elliptic orbit, put another stage on top instead of the BFS and sent it on the Grand Tour of gravity slingshots (which won't happen again until 2150, but that's still a small problem) it'll go from 40000 years like Voyager to what, like 10000 years? Chemical rockets are almost like breeding horses to reach the moon. But I do hope they'll limp humans to Mars in my lifetime...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    14. Re:41 years by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      A space probe made of Twinkies, piloted by cockroaches.

      No cockroaches. If we're settling a planet- I don't want cockroaches sent there to populate it first. Earth 2.0 needs to be void of cockroaches, otherwise what's the point of leaving earth?

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    15. Re:41 years by meglon · · Score: 1

      A space probe made of Twinkies, piloted by cockroaches.

      No cockroaches. If we're settling a planet- I don't want cockroaches sent there to populate it first. Earth 2.0 needs to be void of cockroaches, otherwise what's the point of leaving earth?

      Getting away from the people who thought Pee Wee Herman movies were a good idea, obviously.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    16. Re:41 years by Nkwe · · Score: 4, Informative

      2 years to get from Earth to Jupiter, 2 more to Saturn, 4.5 to Uranus, 3.5 to Neptune, and an astonishing 29 to reach interstellar space. Truly amazing.

      Agreed. Also amazing that it is still operating after all these years and harsh conditions. That was some seriously good engineering done 40+ years ago.

    17. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And that company is...?

    18. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Toys R Us

    19. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      100 hours at the speed of light to catch up if one leaves now.

    20. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It uses NUKULAR POWAR. That thing all the "greens" are trying to get rid of even through it is completely carbon neutral.

      Funny, that.

    21. Re: 41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan

    22. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. Also amazing that it is still operating after all these years and harsh conditions. That was some seriously good engineering done 40+ years ago.

      Wouldn't be possible to build it today...

    23. Re:41 years by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Still like to know how they're planning on communicating with Earth

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    24. Re:41 years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Planned obsolescence was not a thing at the time.

    25. Re:41 years by kimvette · · Score: 1

      > otherwise what's the point of leaving earth

      Getting away from Republicans... oh wait, I see your point about cockroaches. nvm.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    26. Re:41 years by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      > otherwise what's the point of leaving earth

      Getting away from Republicans... oh wait, I see your point about cockroaches. nvm.

      Obviously you're joking... but... you can't get away from them that easily. Studies have shown that lottery winners usually go on to become right wing politically after winning money regardless of their political affiliation before winning the lottery. The reason is probably obvious, if you have a lot of money you're more likely to want to protect it, rather than live in an egalitarian society.

      The study only showed lottery winners, (it's easier to track them than the population at large), but it would suggest that having money can change your political stance and make you want to protect it. Any trip to another planet even if you sent all Republicans or all Democrats would eventually end up with a mix of political beliefs as long as there was a way for some people to have more wealth than another.

      As long as you have some people with more wealth than others- you're always going to have conservatives wanting to protect that wealth. As long as you have some people with less wealth than others you're always going to have liberals wanting an equal share of the pie. It's human nature. Obviously not all rich people are conservative or poor people liberal; I'm not making that claim. A large portion of conservatives are poor but dream of being rich.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  4. Quotation marks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So many.

  5. s/Nasa/NASA/g; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NASA should be written in ALL CAPS since it is an acronym: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

    1. Re:s/Nasa/NASA/g; by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      NASA should be written in ALL CAPS since it is an acronym

      So is laser, taser, radar, sonar, scuba, base jumping, care packages, (giga/mega)flop, Pakistan, snafu, gulag, zip code, modem...

  6. TS Eliot by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

    Not fare well,
    But fare forward, voyagers.

    -- TS Eliot, The Dry Salvages

    [Ed Stone added this quote to the last slide of his Voyager-Neptune talk, at the Fall 1989 AGU meeting.]

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  7. Lucky thing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the future a machine society will build it a giant space cloud with a leggy bald Indian hottie in a bathrobe!

    1. Re:Lucky thing! by servo335 · · Score: 1

      In the future a machine society will build it a giant space cloud with a leggy bald Indian hottie in a bathrobe!

      V'ger

  8. For small values of 'Solar System' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not even to the Oort cloud yet, it will take another 300,000 years to get through that.

    1. Re:For small values of 'Solar System' by shoor · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I understand there's a Public Relations consideration in these announcements, but the real, final, inarguable milestone would be connected to the gravitational influence. It will have escaped the solar system when it's at a place where an object couldn't be held in orbit around the Sun. (How far away is that anyway?)

      --
      In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
    2. Re:For small values of 'Solar System' by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Assuming an infinitely slow orbit is possible, I'd expect the limit to be at the midpoint between the sun and the nearest celestial body... so a couple of light years, give or take.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    3. Re:For small values of 'Solar System' by dissy · · Score: 2

      Agreed. I understand there's a Public Relations consideration in these announcements, but the real, final, inarguable milestone would be connected to the gravitational influence. It will have escaped the solar system when it's at a place where an object couldn't be held in orbit around the Sun. (How far away is that anyway?)

      The suns gravitational influence ends at the outside edge of the heliosphere, which is about 100 AU from the sun. This is what most everyone labels as "the edge of the solar system"

      The oort cloud starts about 10000 AU from the sun and is not under the suns influence in any way.
      It also kind of makes the anon parent post a bit silly.
      Any small or large value for 'solar system' will still be FAR closer to the sun than the oort cloud is.

      Also keep in mind the oort cloud is insanely thick, starting just under 10000 AU and ending about 100000 AU away.

      Alpha Centauri is two orders of magnitude closer to the outer most boundary of the oort cloud than our sun is.
      Any definition of our solar system that includes the oort cloud would also be including numerous other solar systems and stars, completely nullifying any reason for having such a definition in the first place.

    4. Re:For small values of 'Solar System' by dissy · · Score: 1

      Perhaps this would be helpful regarding the scale and perspective

      https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/multimedia/pia17046.html

    5. Re:For small values of 'Solar System' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Perhaps this would be helpful regarding the scale and perspective

      https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/multimedia/pia17046.html

      This artist's concept puts solar system distances in perspective. The scale bar is in astronomical units, with each set distance beyond 1 AU representing 10 times the previous distance. One AU is the distance from the sun to the Earth, which is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. Neptune, the most distant planet from the sun, is about 30 AU.

      Informally, the term "solar system" is often used to mean the space out to the last planet. Scientific consensus, however, says the solar system goes out to the Oort Cloud, the source of the comets that swing by our sun on long time scales. Beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, the gravity of other stars begins to dominate that of the sun.

      The inner edge of the main part of the Oort Cloud could be as close as 1,000 AU from our sun. The outer edge is estimated to be around 100,000 AU.

      NASA's Voyager 1, humankind's most distant spacecraft, is around 125 AU. Scientists believe it entered interstellar space, or the space between stars, on Aug. 25, 2012. Much of interstellar space is actually inside our solar system. It will take about 300 years for Voyager 1 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and possibly about 30,000 years to fly beyond it.

      Alpha Centauri is currently the closest star to our solar system. But, in 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will be closer to the star AC +79 3888 than to our own sun. AC +79 3888 is actually traveling faster toward Voyager 1 than the spacecraft is traveling toward it.

      The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

      For more information about Voyager, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

    6. Re:For small values of 'Solar System' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Voyager 2 launch... https://www.nasa.gov/press-rel...

    7. Re:For small values of 'Solar System' by toddestan · · Score: 1

      The heliosphere in the region dominated by the solar wind from the sun. The sun's gravitational influence extends far beyond that. The Oort cloud is under the gravitational influence of the sun, though a lot of it is rather tenuous which is why other objects that pass nearby like stars can dislodge objects in the Oort cloud and send some of the into the solar system where we usually call them comets.

      To answer the original question, if there wasn't any other objects in the universe, the Sun's gravitational influence would extend out to infinity, getting progressively weaker of course. Since there are other objects in the universe as you travel away from the Sun, you'll eventually end up close enough to some other object so that object's influence will be greater than the Sun's. So it depends a bit on which way you travel away from the Sun, but if you pick a direction with nothing significant in the way you could travel up to about 3 lightyears before leaving the Sun's influence (if you get far enough away from anything you'll fall under the gravitational influence of the Milky Way galaxy itself).

  9. Re: Great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please. They havenâ(TM)t even launched up to Voyager 6 yet.

    Now Pioneer 10, if it survives its target practice, will be impressive.

  10. It'll be back... by kimgkimg · · Score: 1

    ... to join with The Creator (in endless CG cloud scenes...)

  11. Amazing! by gosand · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This really is an amazing thing. And I mean that in the truest sense, not in an OMG-this-pumpkin-spice-frappachino-is-amazing kind of way. Sadly, I am guessing most people won't even read this story because it's not trash news.

    I really liked this from the article: "Voyager 1 will not approach another star for nearly 40,000 years, even though it is moving at such great speed. "

    It's fascinating and hard to comprehend.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

    1. Re:Amazing! by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Not hard to comprehend. Space is extremely big. Spacecraft are extremely slow.

    2. Re: Amazing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spacecraft are extremely fast, but not in relation to the vast distances in space.

    3. Re: Amazing! by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      The speed of light is extremely fast.

    4. Re: Amazing! by dgatwood · · Score: 3, Informative

      You missed your chance to quote Douglas Adams.

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

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    5. Re:Amazing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least the aliens will know that we are coming 40,000 years before we get there by monitoring the spacecrafts comms being sent back home. :)

  12. Time to send something new. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Technology has improved so much since then. We should send something new up for the next generation.

    1. Re:Time to send something new. by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Technology has improved so much since then. We should send something new up for the next generation.

      Why? Is there anything of use to look at way out there?

      It's not like we are going to go any faster. Delta-V (speed) is produced the old fashioned way still. You burn rocket fuel and/or slingshot around a planet to get moving. I'm thinking that there are better uses for our exploration dollars than heading into interstellar space. I'd like to see some more exploration of Saturn's moons myself, more poking around Mars, or even heading inward toward Venus and Mercury might be interesting too.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Time to send something new. by penandpaper · · Score: 2

      Did you miss New Horizons?

      If you missed the Pluto flyby there will be another flyby of a Kuiper Belt Object ((486958) 2014 MU) on January 1, 2019.

      Moving at 36,373 mph and heading toward the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. It will be the 3rd man made object to leave the solar system.

  13. Second CONFIRMED Object by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Voyager 2 probe, which left Earth in 1977, has become the second human-made object to leave our Solar System.

    Correction, it has become the second CONFIRMED human-made object to leave out Solar System. Pioneer 10 and 11 were also going fast enough to escape, but we lost contact with them a while ago so cannot confirm exactly when they did / will leave our Solar System, we can only calculate a likely time frame it may have / will happen.

  14. And what will these Voyagers find by pgmrdlm · · Score: 0

    Space filled with Anonymous Coward's that offer nothing of value to the Universe they live in. The final analysis of 90 percent of Anonymous Coward's will be, wasted space that should be used by someone or something that can bring value to this Universe's existence.

    --
    Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
    1. Re:And what will these Voyagers find by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least we don't pluralize words by adding an apostrophe and an s, Mr. Smug Toolbag.

    2. Re:And what will these Voyagers find by pgmrdlm · · Score: 1

      Your reading comprehension is like you. Nothing. I didn't say ALL AC's, I said 90 percent of them. Thank you for confirming you are part of the 90 percent and not the 10 percent that has something meaningful to offer. Fuck off

      --
      Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
    3. Re:And what will these Voyagers find by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are many. You are of a few. We will haunt your posts with the veracity of obsession like you have never seen before.

    4. Re:And what will these Voyagers find by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      please dont hit me again

    5. Re:And what will these Voyagers find by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Some of us AC's have moderated here.

    6. Re:And what will these Voyagers find by pgmrdlm · · Score: 1

      I guess I should have been more informative. The AC's that do nothing but insult are what that post was directed at. There are days that is all I seem to read when it comes from AC's.

      --
      Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
  15. Re: Great... by jd · · Score: 1

    I fitted it with shields and an energy bomb from a Cobra Mk III.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  16. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And don't come back!

    1. Re:Good by bobbied · · Score: 1

      And don't come back!

      Old movies aside, I don't think we are in any danger of that.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  17. Voyager 2 hasn't really left the solar system by northbrae · · Score: 4, Informative

    Voyager 2 has entered interstellar space (i.e. crossed the heliopause, the boundary where the Sun's solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium), but it hasn't left the solar system (the spherical area of space gravitationally bound to the Sun). The Oort Cloud, by current estimates, extends 10-2,000 times farther out than Voyagers 1 & 2 are now. The probes are expected to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud in ~300 years. The popular idea of the solar system ends at Pluto, but we know of many objects orbiting far beyond that.

    1. Re:Voyager 2 hasn't really left the solar system by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 1

      I've always been curious about how the sun's gravity can affect objects so far away from itself as the Oort cloud. Consider that I am thinking in terms of distance versus force where the intensity of the force decreases with distance, at such distances the intensity of the gravitational force should be really really small right?

      --
      Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
    2. Re:Voyager 2 hasn't really left the solar system by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I've always been curious about how the sun's gravity can affect objects so far away from itself as the Oort cloud. Consider that I am thinking in terms of distance versus force where the intensity of the force decreases with distance, at such distances the intensity of the gravitational force should be really really small right?

      It probably doesn't matter how small the force is as long as it is stronger than the other outside forces of gravity from other bodies. One billionth of a G in force is still stronger than nothing and if it is competing with "statistically" nothing it wins the tug of war.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    3. Re:Voyager 2 hasn't really left the solar system by itzdandy · · Score: 2

      Inertia doesn't care about the gravity from the 'void' beyond the solar system. Out in the oort, objects are orbiting so slowly that the micro-gravity from the sun still keeps them. The gravity from the void beyond is a tiny fraction comparatively. So this is about inertia vs gravity, not local gravity vs interstellar gravity.

      Also consider that the oort cloud has not been observed. 'cloud' might be a very optimistic description of what orbits out there, if anything. A single icy body out there could be the source of all of these oort cloud comets.

    4. Re:Voyager 2 hasn't really left the solar system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly this. Gravity asymptotes to zero - keyword being asymptote.

  18. Only to be shot down hundreds of years later... by magusxxx · · Score: 1

    ...by Klingons.

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
    1. Re:Only to be shot down hundreds of years later... by nt8d09 · · Score: 1

      Shooting space garbage is no test of a warrior's mettle.

    2. Re:Only to be shot down hundreds of years later... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Surprise twist: voyager shoots back.

  19. Obligatory XKCD by CapeBretonIslander · · Score: 2

    Voyager 2 will have some catching up to do to leave the solar system as many times as Voyager 1. :) https://xkcd.com/1189/

  20. Oort cloud? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Have either of them made it past the Oort cloud?
    No? When will that happen?
    So you're saying there's some distinction between "leaving the solar system" and "leaving the neighborhood of objects which orbit the sun"?

    1. Re:Oort cloud? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Have either of them made it past the Oort cloud?
      No? When will that happen?
      So you're saying there's some distinction between "leaving the solar system" and "leaving the neighborhood of objects which orbit the sun"?

      They probably won't be the first past the Oort cloud. I'm sure we will have vessels that can travel fast enough to overtake Voyager in time to beat them past that distance.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Oort cloud? by bobbied · · Score: 1

      So you're saying there's some distinction between "leaving the solar system" and "leaving the neighborhood of objects which orbit the sun"?

      Yes.. Interstellar space is defined as being beyond the Solar Wind's reach; Where the particles ejected by the Sun reach equal pressure with Interstellar space. Gravity influences objects at much greater distances. So you can orbit the Sun in Interstellar space.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  21. More tools this time through by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Voyager 2 has an additional instrument that Voyager 1 lacked during its crossing:

    The most compelling evidence of Voyager 2's exit from the heliosphere came from its onboard Plasma Science Experiment (PLS), an instrument that stopped working on Voyager 1 in 1980, long before that probe crossed the heliopause.

    1. Re:More tools this time through by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, Voyager 1's PLS stopped working. They had the same equipment.

    2. Re:More tools this time through by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      (Warning: Pedantic wording discussion ahead)

      I admit "lacked" is vague, but it was made clear in the quote below it. How would you rework my statement & quote context so that such was clear yet brief?

      If one's neighbor asked, "Do you have a hammer", but one only had a broken hammer that was likely beyond repair, typically they'd simply reply, "Sorry, I don't".

      I more thorough answer would have been, "I only have a broken hammer". Would the neighbor want the fuller second answer? It depends on the audience. If you are both retired and have all the time in the world to chat, then the second may be more appropriate. Working people usually prefer the shorter. Slashdotters usually prefer compact statements, based on my experience, even if such may be more ambiguous as a trade-off.

    3. Re:More tools this time through by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go back to OCD school.

    4. Re:More tools this time through by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is OCD school.

  22. Send it to Oumuamua's star by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See how they like getting buzzed by an interstellar asteroid

  23. selected comments from reddit by k6mfw · · Score: 1
    comments from reddit about Voyager 2 leaves the Solar System https://old.reddit.com/r/news/...

    FactualNeutronStar writes:

    It didn't actually leave the Solar system. It entered "interstellar space" which means the Solar wind is basically negligible, but it is still well within the influence of the Sun's gravity. It's similar to saying that a rocket has left Earth because it escaped the atmosphere, despite the fact that it is still very much influenced by the Earth.

    Classified0 writes:

    Voyager 2 is traveling at about 16 km/s
    The speed of light, c, is about 299792 km/s.
    Time dilation is t' = t*sqrt(1-v2 /c2 )
    The factor then is 0.999999997
    41 years is about 1293861600 seconds, and multiplying by the factor gives about 1293861596 seconds. So, Voyager 2 is about 4 seconds younger because of time dilation.

    abacadabraupyourass writes:

    “Voyager 1 will not approach another star for nearly 40,000 years, even though it is moving at such great speed. But it will be in orbit around the centre of our galaxy with all its stars for billions of years.”

    For some reason, while pondering about our short time here trying to rip our planet to pieces, it hit me how insanely large the universe is. And particularly, how tiny we are in the grand scheme of things.

    --
    mfwright@batnet.com
    1. Re:selected comments from reddit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For some reason, while pondering about our short time here trying to rip our planet to pieces, it hit me how insanely large the universe is. And particularly, how tiny we are in the grand scheme of things.

      Perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, we are all quite important. Ever think of that? ;)

  24. At that speed we are going nowhere. by kiviQr · · Score: 1

    Elon is right it is high time to abandon internal combustion engine. Newer engine designs will hopefuly translate into more options for space travel.

  25. Re:Great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I cant anymore. The VHS tape snapped inside the recorder.

  26. Obligatory xkcd by giampy · · Score: 2
    --
    We learn from history that we learn nothing from history - Tom Veneziano
  27. Anyone Else Still Around? by DERoss · · Score: 1

    In the late 1960s, I was employed as a programmer by a subcontractor at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. That was before the Voyager satellites were launched. I wrote part of the software that would later be used to track and collect data from the Voyager ssatellites. I also wrote part of the software used by the project management to schedule tasks in the development and launches of the satellites.

    Is there anyone else reading this who participated in the Voyager project before they were launched?

    1. Re: Anyone Else Still Around? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No

  28. It will be back, someday. by mark-t · · Score: 1

    As far as I know, the probe did not actually ever attain solar escape velocity, which means it will continue to slow down and eventually be pulled back, entering into an extremely long and skinny elliptical orbit around the sun.

    1. Re:It will be back, someday. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From Wikipedia, the world's premiere source of half information:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_leaving_the_Solar_System

      The escape velocity of the Sun from its surface is 618. km/sec

      In order to leave the Solar System, the probe needs to reach the escape velocity. After leaving Earth, the Sun's escape velocity is 42.1 km/s. In order to reach this speed, it is highly advantageous to utilize the orbital speed of the Earth around the Sun, which is 29.78 km/s. By passing near a planet, a probe can gain extra speed.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2

      Voyager 2 is

      moving at a velocity of 15.341 km/s

      So 42.1 - 29.78 - 15.341 = ~-3, so after using Earth, a rocket launch and Jupiter, it was just about to squeak out.

    2. Re:It will be back, someday. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *sigh* replying to myself

      just able to squeak out

    3. Re:It will be back, someday. by mark-t · · Score: 1

      After leaving Earth, the Sun's escape velocity is 42.1 km/s

      Yes, but it was never actually moving that fast after it left earth. It launched at 16km/s relative to earth, but lost much of that velocity simply escaping earth's gravitational pull. While it's true that 29.7km/s of that can be taken from earth's speed, it would have to accellerate an *ADDITIONAL* 13km/s beyond that to reach solar escape velocity, and while it launched at 16km/s relative to earth, it lost about half of that just getting into space, so that only gives it an extra 8km/s, giving the probe a net velocity of 37.7km/s. It would need to pick up about an extra 5km/s of velocity from gravity assists to actually make it out of the solar system, and while it did definitely gain some of that from its encounters with some of our solar system's gas giants, it's my understanding that it was still inadequate to actually achieve escape velocity.

      As you say, it's only moving at 15.3km/s now... It will continue to slow down, and will eventually come back into our own solar system... either entering a very elongated orbit around the sun or possibly even ultimately crashing into it, although probably not in anyone's lifetime alive today.

      The new horizons probe is going fast enough to escape the solar system, however.... so we've still got that.

  29. Re:correction by meglon · · Score: 1

    Congrats on joiming the stupider-than-a-fucking-rock club.

    Socialism is on the left,fascism is on the right,NAZI's were right wing fascists. Because you disagree with the entire rest of the world EXCEPT other self loathing incels in the US doesn't make you correct, it just makes you a fucking idiot.

    https://www.snopes.com/news/20...

    So... grow a brain and realize people don't hate you because you can't get laid, they hate you because you're a fucking NAZI asswipe. The biggest problem in the US is there are too many people as completely fucking stupid as you.

    --
    Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
  30. Re:correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Socialism is on the left,fascism is on the right,NAZI's were right wing fascists.

    What practical difference is there for a regular Joe living under (a) a left-wing authoritarian system where production is state-owned with party officials and their friends in charge and pursuing whatever cultural and ethnic shakedowns they want, or (b) a right-wing system authoritarian system where production is privately owned with party officials and their friends in charge and pursuing whatever cultural and ethnic shakedowns they want ?