Voyager 2 Finds Lopsided Solar System

Scientific American ^ | July 2, 2008 | JR Minkel

[Abathar]

KITCHEN SINK HELIOSPHERE: If the solar wind is like a stream of water spreading out on a flat sink bottom, then the boundary where the flow breaks against onrushing soapy water (interstellar gas) is the termination shock (recently encountered by the spacecraft Voyager 2) and the region of slower-moving water beyond it is the heliosheath. Courtesy of J.R. Jokipii

Still working after all these years, I guess they lost money on the extended warranty for the plutonium power packs the salesman talked them into...

[ken21]

that is amazing!

thanks.

[mnehring]

The little guys just keep chugging along don’t they?

[Army Air Corps]

Ping!

[AbeKrieger]

Must have a Slant 6 engine in those buggers.

[Army Air Corps]

Like Timex watches - They take a licking and keep on ticking.

[6SJ7]

Amazing that far out, we can still pickup on the craft’s radio transmission.

[Abathar]

To bad the engineers didn’t quit NASA and work for GM...

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Something tells me Voyager will be back.............it will have this really great female body and no hair...

[GunnyHartman]

Just released by AP. The source of the giant vacuum the dented our solar system has just been revealed.

[Abathar]

Yep, calls itself “Veejer” though so we will be confused.

[Telepathic Intruder]

"Creator must join with Vger"

"Well, alright, but only to save humanity."

[SunkenCiv]

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[no-s]

NASA engineers estimate that both probes' plutonium power packs have the potential to keep them broadcasting data until 2025.

A feature NASA can no longer design into a space probe because it might crash on launch and scatter chunks of plutonium everywhere. Even though the one on the Apollo 13 lunar ascent module crashed into the Indian Ocean at 26,000 MPH with nary a trace of radioactive release.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

"Creator must join with Vger"

LOL, Star Trek had some great lines: Such as: "Why does God need a star ship"?

[Secret Agent Man]

Worst Star Trek movie ever. Probably best choice for bald actress ever.

[Political Junkie Too]

Did they find this thing?

-PJ

[NucSubs]

The shock wave, or heliospheric termination shock, occurs when the supersonic wind thins to the point that it can no longer rebuff the denser haze of charged particles flowing through interstellar space. Instead, the solar wind suddenly collapses in on itself.

Uhmmm...no?

[neverdem]

BTTT!

[brityank]

The shock wave, or heliospheric termination shock, occurs when the supersonic wind thins to the point that it can no longer rebuff the denser haze of charged particles flowing through interstellar space. Instead, the solar wind suddenly collapses in on itself.

Uhmmm...no?

Well, I think it is a wind, but I believe that it is more shaped by the gravi-magnetic forces than by the particle stream itself. What direction, with respect to the solar system's travel direction in the cosmos, were the Voyager craft sent; the boundary distance will change and be further away the further from the dead-ahead position they travel.