Voyager 1 May Have Left the Solar System

[theworldismine13]

Voyager 1 May Have Left the Solar System

Voyager 1 May Have Left the Solar System

While there’s no official word from NASA on this, the buzz around the blogosphere is that Voyager 1 has left the Solar System. The evidence comes from this graph, above, which shows the number of particles, mainly protons, from the Sun hitting Voyager 1 across time. A huge drop at the end of August hints that Voyager 1 may now be in interstellar space. The last we heard from the Voyager team was early August, and they indicated that on July 28, the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside our Solar System dropped by half. However, in three days, the levels had recovered to near their previous levels. But then the bottom dropped out at the end of August.

The Voyager team has said they have been seeing two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space. In addition to the drop in particles from the Sun, they’ve also seen a jump in the level of high-energy cosmic rays originating from outside our Solar System.
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The third key sign would be the direction of the magnetic field. No word on that yet, but scientists are eagerly analyzing the data to see whether that has, indeed, changed direction. Scientists expect that all three of these signs will have changed when Voyager 1 has crossed into interstellar space.

“These are thrilling times for the Voyager team as we try to understand the quickening pace of changes as Voyager 1 approaches the edge of interstellar space,” said Edward Stone, the Voyager project scientist for the entire mission, who was quoted in early August. “We are certainly in a new region at the edge of the solar system where things are changing rapidly. But we are not yet able to say that Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space.”

Stone added that the data are changing in ways that the team didn’t expect, “but Voyager has always surprised us with new discoveries.”

Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977, is approximately 18 billion kilometers (11 billion miles) from the Sun. Voyager 2, which launched on Aug. 20, 1977, is close behind, at 15 billion km (9.3 billion miles) from the Sun.

 

[AITheAnswerAI]

If some aliens find that shyt, hope they're friendly.

 

[daze23]

 

[OG_StankBrefs]

If some aliens find that shyt, hope they're friendly.

 

[Spatial Paradox]

Every time I think about the Voyager probes, I can't help but think "Holy shyt, we built probes which are still working long past the time they were built to be used for, and they're on their way to leaving the damn Solar System". The distances involved are mindblowing enough.

And now it looks like Voyager 1 has left the Solar System and entered interstellar space?

 

[Da_Eggman]

yeah and...

 

[OG_StankBrefs]

yeah and...

We wait.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Every time I think about the Voyager probes, I can't help but think "Holy shyt, we built probes which are still working long past the time they were built to be used for, and they're on their way to leaving the damn Solar System". The distances involved are mindblowing enough.

And now it looks like Voyager 1 has left the Solar System and entered interstellar space?

Yeah me too. It's kinda scary for some reason.

 

[Serious]

 

[Serious]

If some aliens find that shyt, hope they're friendly.

NFI, but here's a good perspective:
Disclosure Scenario Summer 2012 - Alien Encounter - YouTube

doubt it though

 

[Heretic]

Forgive me for not knowing but what keeps that thing going? I thought solar power but I doubt it at that distance.

 

[Serious]

Forgive me for not knowing but what keeps that thing going? I thought solar power but I doubt it at that distance.

It's not solar power, it's does a slingshot maneuver, where it increases or decreases speed as it orbits around planets or asteroids.......

 

[jackswstd]

Cool. Was there anything on it that we should be concerned about being discovered? Not sure I trust E.T.

 

[daze23]

It's not solar power, it's does a slingshot maneuver, where it increases or decreases speed as it orbits around planets or asteroids.......

I think he was talking about what powers the systems

it's actually powered by plutonium

Voyager 1 has three large radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Each RTG contains 24 pressed plutonium-238 oxide spheres. The heat from the spheres generated about 157 watts of electric power at the launch, with the remainder being dissipated as waste heat. Hence there was a total of about 470 watts of electric power provided by the three RTGs.

The power output of the RTGs does decline over time, but the RTGs of Voyager 1 will continue to support some of its operations through about 2025.