The termination shock lies at a boundary where the solar wind – made of charged particles from the Sun – suddenly falters as it feels pressure from gas in the interstellar medium (Illustration: NASA/Feimer)
Posted on 12/10/2007 11:27:15 AM PST by blam
Voyager 2 probe reaches solar system boundary
18:25 10 December 2007
NewScientist.com news service
David Shiga
The Voyager 2 spacecraft has crossed an important space frontier called the termination shock, and in a few years may become the first object made by humans to travel outside the solar system.
NASA's two Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977 to tour the outer solar system. They are now far beyond the orbits of the outermost planets and heading towards interstellar space.
In 2004, the faster of the two spacecraft, Voyager 1, became the first human-made object to reach a boundary called the termination shock. There, the solar wind – made of charged particles from the Sun – suddenly falters as it feels pressure from gas in the interstellar medium lying outside the solar system.
But scientists missed observing the crucial moment because the sensitive radio dishes on Earth needed to hear the spacecraft's transmissions did not happen to be listening at the time.
That's because the dishes are in high demand for other missions, such as Cassini, and therefore cannot listen to the Voyagers around the clock. The Voyagers cannot store their observations onboard, so they are lost forever if they are not relayed to Earth as they are made.
Now, Voyager 2 has crossed the same boundary, and this time scientists were lucky enough to be listening when it happened.
Pushing the boundary
The spacecraft crossed the boundary on 30 August 2007 at a distance of 84 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (1 AU is the distance between the Earth and Sun). By comparison, Pluto is now about 32 AU from the Sun.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.newscientist.com ...
The termination shock lies at a boundary where the solar wind – made of charged particles from the Sun – suddenly falters as it feels pressure from gas in the interstellar medium (Illustration: NASA/Feimer)
ping
Just remember - Vger comes back.
And my dad said this could never happen. Just a matter of time before Veeger destroys all of us!
Do not believe this. The event has been awaited and an article a couple weeks ago said they are listening intently.
Thanks for the post Blam. Quite interesting...
THX, good post
Too bad Hillary’s fat arse...and Obama’s dumb arse weren’t strapped to the thing...
They heard this one. That refers to the one in 2004.
As if the one guy listening decided get a coffee? Right. They had a bunch of people listening to dead air for 24/7 a week before the event and they are probably still listening right now.
The article was referring to Voyager I which crossed the boundary in 2004. I think you’e referring to Voyager II which is crossing the barrier now.
Right you are!
30 years and still working. Not bad at all.
“scientists were lucky enough to be listening when it happened.”
They don’t say what it sounded like, but I bet it wasn’t much of a change.
It’s astounding that we can pick up signals at that distance!
I can’t believe you beat me to it!!!
The space dolphins will chatter with delight.
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