Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Eight billion miles away, Voyager exits Solar System
The Independent (U.K.) ^ | 11/06/03 | Steve Connor

Posted on 11/05/2003 1:38:05 PM PST by Pokey78

It was launched in the year in which Elvis died of a heart attack, Donna Summer hit number one with "I Feel Love" and a punk band called the Sex Pistols were taking Britain by storm.

Since 1977, the Voyager 1 space probe has witnessed at close quarters the violent "red spot" of Jupiter, a permanent storm on the planet's equator, and taken stunning photographs of its four biggest moons.

In 1980, a year after passing Jupiter, Voyager 1 made a dramatic fly-by of Titan, the largest of the 31 known moons of Saturn, and in 1991 its camera pointed briefly back towards Earth to capture an historic photograph of nearly allof the Solar System's nine planets.

In February 1998, Voyager 1 overtook the Pioneer 10 probe, launched in 1972, to become the most distant man-made object in space.

Now scientists are wondering if it has broken the ultimate record of space endurance by becoming the first probe to reach the outermost boundary of the Solar System.

Stamatios Krimigis of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland, says the latest data from Voyager 1's enfeebled instruments suggests the probe has left the Solar System for the icy depths of interstellar space.

In a study published today in the journal Nature, Dr Krimigis and his colleagues argue that Voyager 1, which is now more than 8 billion miles from Earth, is going where no space probe has gone before.

The edge of the Solar System is defined as the point at which the high-velocity solar wind - a stream of charged particles from the Sun travelling at up to 467 miles per second - finally peters out to be replaced by the interstellar winds of deep space.

Scientists call this boundary the "termination shock" because the sudden drop in velocity of the solar wind from supersonic to subsonic speeds causes a transition similar to the sonic boom caused as an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound.

The instrument on board Voyager 1 that could measure the speed of the solar wind directly has long since broken down, but scientists have invented an ingenious alternative based on the study of lower-energy particles.

Dr Krimigis and his team have interpreted their analysis as confirmation that Voyager 1 has finally begun the transition into interstellar space, but other scientists, led by Frank McDonald of the University of Maryland, believe that the probe has yet to reach the transition boundary.

To complicate matters further, the scientists accept that the edge of the Solar System is a moveable feast, with the termination shock boundary rapidly pulsating.

Dr Krimigis said that although he believed Voyager 1 passed through the boundary, it only did so for about 200 days before the boundary rebounded and enveloped the probe once more with a supersonic solar wind.

Len Fisk, an astronomer and commentator at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, said that the argument over whether Voyager 1 had gone through the boundary was important because the termination shock was a fascinating astrophysical object that had never been properly studied.

"I tend to agree with Krimigis et al that their data can most readily be explained if the termination shock had been crossed," Dr Fisk said. "And once the termination shock has definitely been passed, the adventure enters a new phase."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: voyager
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last
To: Pokey78
Scientists call this boundary the "termination shock" because the sudden drop in velocity of the solar wind from supersonic to subsonic speeds causes a transition similar to the sonic boom caused as an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound.

Really? How fast does sound travel in a vaccuum?

21 posted on 11/05/2003 2:09:01 PM PST by Egon (This is my third tagline.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pokey78
their data can most readily be explained if the termination shock had been crossed

Field strength, particle encounters are so low that the data would be nearly flatlined anyway. It's still a loooong cold, dark way to the next star.

22 posted on 11/05/2003 2:11:10 PM PST by RightWhale (Close your tag lines)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pokey78
"I tend to agree with Krimigis et al that their data can most readily be explained if the termination shock had been crossed," Dr Fisk said.

Dr. Fisk, no one in the real world uses the phrase "et al" in a conversation. You obviously don't get out much. Therefore, I am sending you a perscription of 12 beers to be taken once every thirty minutes in a strip joint. Additional beers may be taken as needed.

23 posted on 11/05/2003 2:12:35 PM PST by rudypoot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Egon
Over 900 meters a second.
24 posted on 11/05/2003 2:13:46 PM PST by rudypoot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Pokey78
Surely the greys have scooped it up by now.
25 posted on 11/05/2003 2:14:12 PM PST by somemoreequalthanothers
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pokey78
Eight billion miles away, Voyager exits Solar System

Hope it locked the door as it left.

26 posted on 11/05/2003 2:14:13 PM PST by Poohbah ("Would you mind not shooting at the thermonuclear weapons?" -- Major Vic Deakins, USAF)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jae471
I hate journalists

Right. What's wrong with the article?

27 posted on 11/05/2003 2:14:33 PM PST by RightWhale (Close your tag lines)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: rudypoot
I used "et al" a couple of weeks ago. Can my prescription be here by the weekend?
28 posted on 11/05/2003 2:16:47 PM PST by somemoreequalthanothers
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: rudypoot
Over 900 meters a second.

Not in my physics books.

29 posted on 11/05/2003 2:18:01 PM PST by Egon (This is my third tagline.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: rudypoot
LOL! et al would be a good username.
30 posted on 11/05/2003 2:18:07 PM PST by Pokey78 ("I thought this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation." Wesley Clark to Russert)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Pokey78
Cool, I saw Voyager 2 launch when I was a kid at the Cape. Very cool and I will always rememember it.
31 posted on 11/05/2003 2:20:06 PM PST by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pokey78
"And once the termination shock has definitely been passed, the adventure enters a new phase."


I hate it when they say that....
32 posted on 11/05/2003 2:22:13 PM PST by tet68 (Patrick Henry ......."Who fears the wrath of cowards?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pokey78
"the probe has left the Solar System for the icy depths of interstellar space"

Just what is the temperature out there?

33 posted on 11/05/2003 2:23:14 PM PST by From The Deer Stand
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Egon
well, ok ok. that is the speed of sound in helium gas. I remember calculating it in p chem lab.
34 posted on 11/05/2003 2:23:58 PM PST by rudypoot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: rudypoot
I hope you are kidding.
35 posted on 11/05/2003 2:26:04 PM PST by Straight Vermonter (We secretly switched ABC news with Al-Jazeera, lets see if these people can tell the difference.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: ctonious
Oh for shure...we're NOT stopping til we get THERE!
36 posted on 11/05/2003 2:27:39 PM PST by GRRRRR (If the GOP could just send in the Marines against the Demokrats now....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Pokey78
and in 1991 its camera pointed briefly back towards Earth to capture an historic photograph of nearly allof the Solar System's nine planets

Anyone got a link to this picture?

37 posted on 11/05/2003 2:28:38 PM PST by cruiserman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: somemoreequalthanothers
Or Klingon Captain Klaa uses it for target practice.
38 posted on 11/05/2003 2:29:29 PM PST by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Asclepius
And I hope no space-faring race finds that god-awful plaque depicting in contour lines two naked humanoids with seventies haircuts next to a wildly out-of-scale schematic of an atom.

You mean this one? It was actually on Pioneer. But I agree with your assesment.


39 posted on 11/05/2003 2:36:40 PM PST by ElkGroveDan (Fighting for Freedom and Having Fun)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: danneskjold
209490 bytes? Have mercy on the have-nots. (A JPEG could say as much and look better in < 30K. ;O)
40 posted on 11/05/2003 2:37:27 PM PST by newgeezer (We learn by trail and errror. ;-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-73 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson