DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Voyager1 near edge of solar system

Pretty cool. Wonder if this gets anyone's attention?

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/13/edge-solar-voyager-finds-oddities/?test=latestnews

Voyager 1 Leaves Sun's Embrace, Nears Edge of Solar System
Published December 13, 2010
| Associated Pres

OUTER SPACE – NASA's long-running Voyager 1 spacecraft is barreling its way toward the edge of the solar system.
Since 2004, the unmanned probe has been exploring a region of space where solar wind -- a stream of charged particles spewing from the sun at 1 million miles per hour -- slows abruptly and crashes into the thin gas between stars.

NASA said Monday that recent readings show the average outward speed of the solar wind has slowed to zero, meaning the spacecraft is nearing ever closer to the solar system's edge to a boundary known as the heliopause.

"It's telling us the heliopause is not too far ahead," said project scientist Edward Stone of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Scientists estimate it will take another four years before Voyager 1 completely exits the solar system and enters interstellar space.


The latest milestone occurred in June when scientists noticed the solar wind speed matched the spacecraft's. Just as wind velocity on Earth can vary, the team took measurements for several more months to make sure there were no changes.

"We knew this was going to happen. The question was when," Stone said.

The Voyager results will be presented Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Launched in 1977, the nuclear-powered Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 toured the planets and kept going in different directions. Voyager 1 veered north while Voyager 2 headed south.

Hurtling at 38,000 mph, Voyager 1 is currently 10.8 billion miles from the sun. Voyager 2 is traveling slower at 35,000 mph and is 8.8 billion miles from the sun.

When Voyager 1 finally exits the solar system, scientists expect to see a telltale change in the wind. Interstellar wind is slower, colder and denser than solar wind.

It gets my attention. I have been a star gazer for decades....it's now the season to lug out the telescope. Southern summers aren't the best for star gazing with the heat and humidity.



It pretty amazing that little craft is still sending back signals 33-34 years later.


The Voyager program was money well spent.


It shows the vastness. Thirty-three years at speeds we really can't comprehend since maybe 500 MPH is the fastness any of us have traveled.

Very, very cool.

The most amazing part to me is that Voyager managed to escape major damage after all of that time in space. All of the debris in space, with this craft moving at the speeds it is moving, and it's still intact and working is incredible.

Again, showing the vastness....there is a lot of "nothingness" in space.



At those speeds, a object the size of a grain of sand could put it to a end.

How the hell does that thing still communicate with us?

Makes you wonder if in our lifetimes if we'll make any significant discovery? Another intelligent species maybe, another inhabitable planet, ruins of a former civilization? Would be very cool to find out we aren't alone out here. I suspect we aren't, but some proof would be nice

Sure dont make thing like that anymore...Hopefully somebody will do a documentory on this.

Exciting stuff this is. Bradbury wrote in the Martian Chronicles, which I taught in my classes, "It is good to renew man's wonder. Space travel has agin made children of us all." Something humbling about the scales of space (number of years here) and also about our achievements to fashion a Voyager that keeps going. Simply a "WOW!" moment for me. Thanx for this post!

That's nothing. I can run twice that fast after gmdawg has had a can of beans.

Voyager 1 was launched September 5th, 1977. Many people working at NASA at that time have either retired or passed on. But that space craft is still traveling on.

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The latest milestone occurred in June when scientists noticed the solar wind speed matched the spacecraft's. Just as wind velocity on Earth can vary, the team took measurements for several more months to make sure there were no changes.

"We knew this was going to happen. The question was when," Stone said.

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Sure you did.

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Launched in 1977, the nuclear-powered Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 toured the planets and kept going in different directions. Voyager 1 veered north while Voyager 2 headed south.

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Relative to what? Is there a "north" and a "south" out in space? If so, I hope the south kicks their ass.

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Hurtling at 38,000 mph, Voyager 1 is currently 10.8 billion miles from the sun. Voyager 2 is traveling slower at 35,000 mph and is 8.8 billion miles from the sun.

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The only thing known to move faster is our national debt.

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When Voyager 1 finally exits the solar system, scientists expect to see a telltale change in the wind. Interstellar wind is slower, colder and denser than solar wind.

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That's what they will tell us they saw regardless, it's not like we can prove them wrong.

It's cool, I'm just having fun with it.