Posted on 12/15/2010 4:12:58 PM PST by nuconvert
Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, has reached a new milestone in its quest to leave the Solar System.
Now 17.4bn km (10.8bn miles) from home, the veteran probe has detected a distinct change in the flow of particles that surround it.
These particles, which emanate from the Sun, are no longer travelling outwards but are moving sideways.
It means Voyager must be very close to making the jump to interstellar space - the space between the stars.
Edward Stone, the Voyager project scientist, lauded the explorer and the fascinating science it continues to return 33 years after launch.
"When Voyager was launched, the space age itself was only 20 years old, so there was no basis to know that spacecraft could last so long," he told BBC News.
"We had no idea how far we would have to travel to get outside the Solar System. We now know that in roughly five years, we should be outside for the first time."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I’ve begun to think that this was a bad idea. Can we call it back? :)
What is amazing is the thing is the sum total of work from thousands of low bidders.
V’Ger ?
Gnip
bttt
Edge of the solar system ping....
Wishy washy bass turds.
Are they being controlled by Congress?
interstellar space - the space between the stars
..
Is this thing covered by collision insurance?
Wow!
No. I looked it up a while back, and the movie, iirc, used Voyager 7 or similar.
There are two Voyagers, 1 & 2, and two Pioneers 10 & 11 that are on the way to try to escape the solar system.
Has it found Obama’s BC floatin’ around out there at the edge of the solar system ???
Space Ping
To me the most amazing thing is that we are still able to track this “Thing” The signal it emits must be unblievably weak and still we are able to track it what speaks quite highly of our technology on the receiving side.
It’s 10.8 Billion miles away and it’s using a 23 watt transmitter. That’s a literal needle in a haystack to pick up that signal. I am in awe myself.
Yes indeed, even amateurs have managed to detect it. There’s a group in Germany and a report of an amateur in Portugal both successfully pulling it off. They didn’t decode anything, they just integrated the signal until they got a detection, but a detection nonetheless.
http://www.amsat-dl.org/index.php/pressemedien-othermenu-87/press-releases-othermenu-144/86-voyager-1-empfangen
Personally I think it’d be nice if we could get together a group of American HAMs to do the same thing. Surely the hobby’s not dead here yet.
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