Voyager 1 Becomes First Man-Made Object to Reach Interstellar Space

[theworldismine13]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/voyager-left-solar-system/?mbid=social11854614

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, which launched in 1977, has officially entered interstellar space and is now more than 19 billion kilometers from our sun, nearly 130 times farther away than our planet. An announcement today from NASA scientists confirms that the probe has entered a region of space that is outside our sun’s electromagnetic influence.

Voyager completed its primary mission in 1980, after taking spectacular photos of Jupiter and Saturn, and has been flying away from the sun ever since. You might recall the many previous times that this farthest-out spacecraft has been suspected of venturing out into the stars, leading many to wonder if NASA is simply crying wolf again. But an analysis of data from the machine’s plasma wave sensor suggests that Voyager 1 in fact reached interstellar space more than a year ago, in August 2012.

The unexpected finding relied on the fact that an energetic outburst from the sun, known as a coronal mass ejection, passed by the probe in April, allowing scientists to calibrate their instruments and determine the density of plasma around the spacecraft.

Our solar system is bathed in a constant wind of charged particles and plasma emanating from our central star. This solar wind tapers out at some far distance, many billions of miles beyond Neptune and the rocky belt where Pluto lives, but scientists have always been unsure exactly where. Models of this region of space are notoriously tricky, and new data has often caused researchers to question everything they knew before.

The recent work, published in Science, suggests that Voyager has moved outside the sun’s influence and into the plasma of interstellar space, which is cooler and denser than the solar wind. The spacecraft’s instruments detected a change in particle density on Aug. 25, 2012 characteristic with the move into interstellar space that has remained the same since.

Voyager 1 will not actually leave the solar system for a very long time. That boundary is thought to extend to a region called the Oort Cloud, a band of icy bodies from which many comets originate. It is hypothesized to exist at a distance 50,000 times that of the Earth and the sun. Of course, Voyager’s batteries will run out long before then, probably around 2025, so it won’t be sending back any signals

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

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[Hawaiian Punch]

Safe travels, friend

 

[nineteeneightysix]

I need a new Star Trek series ASAP...Loved that corny show...

 

[AITheAnswerAI]

Voyager is so old and limited, what would it even tell us about what's beyond our solar system?

 

[DStyles]

I rather learn more about our Ocean than the universe.

I don't think that in my lifetime we will be able to find a planet with other beings so fukk that.

What lurks under the ocean

 

[ExodusNirvana]

Dear Aliens,

I'll holla.

Sincerely,

Earth

 

[PikaDaDon]

Them aliens helped us build the pyramids I don't think they're coming back.........jk

I rather learn more about our Ocean than the universe.

I don't think that in my lifetime we will be able to find a planet with other beings so fukk that.

What lurks under the ocean

http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/photos/deep-sea-creatures/

Apparently there's a super huge whale living in the ocean that's emitting waves picked up by sonar instruments.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Voyager is so old and limited, what would it even tell us about what's beyond our solar system?

I didn't think it had a purpose at this point. It took care of what it needed to. This is moreso a "just for the fukk of it" mission

 

[Lord Scion]

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[2Quik4UHoes]

I fukkin love Astronomy, did they send that one probe out to Pluto yet? I've always wanted to see an up close picture of that lil mafukka.

 

[Morph]

Scientists still receive faint (but exciting) data from Voyager 1 as it travels through an unexplored region of space. The spacecraft communicates back to Earth using a 22.4-Watt transmitter — the equivalent of a refrigerator light bulb. When those signals reach Earth — which takes about 17 hours traveling at the speed of light — they are about 0.2 billion-billionth of a Watt. Data from Voyager 1's instruments are transmitted to Earth typically at 160 bits per second.

However, when it comes to battery life, Voyager 1 has a leg up on the iPhone (and just about any other consumer electronic, for that matter). The spacecraft has a plutonium power supply that boasts an 88-year half life, meaning we'll stay in touch for years.

Imagine using an internet connection with a speed of .16kb per second. That's even slower than a 14000 bit baud modem, the ones that were around in the early 1990s.

Voyager is so old and limited, what would it even tell us about what's beyond our solar system?

Some useful stuff like how material degrades in hostile environments with extreme temperatures, exposure to radiation, etc. Imagine how cold it is out there near Pluto, how much radiation the Voyager is exposed to, how all that information gets back to us (radio waves). Lots of good stuff man.

I rather learn more about our Ocean than the universe.
What lurks under the ocean

word... living fossils are interesting. Giant squids and all that...

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

lol, I remember I had a phase where I had to know everything about giant squids. I couldn't believe that they were real life.

 

[NSSVO]

Someone going to find that thing one of these decades

 

[2Quik4UHoes]

Someone going to find that thing one of these decades

They better be cool or we fukked up...