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

Posted by msmash on from the pushing-the-limits dept.

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".

9 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

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    1. 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.

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    2. 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!

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  2. 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 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.

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

      A space probe made of Twinkies, piloted by cockroaches.

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    3. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

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