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".

Comments

41 years

[110010001000]

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

Re:41 years

[k6mfw]

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.

Re:41 years

[Kjella]

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...

Re:Maybe not

[Gravis Zero]

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.