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Voyager craft exits the Solar System...


keithisco

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And so it begins, Humanity has finally left its home system carrying a message of goodwill for all...

"Launched in September 1977, the probe was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.

The US space agency (Nasa) reports that Voyager has now entered a realm of space beyond the influence of our Sun.

This interstellar region is calculated to be more than 18 billion km from Earth, or 123 times the distance between our planet and the Sun."

Thanks to the BBC for the article, READ MORE:http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-21866532

Edited by keithisco
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We definitly got our moneys worth with that one...

If you think about it, the Two Voyager craft could possibly be the longest lasting 'relics' of Earth... Unless they collide with some object out there in the deep black, or get pulled into some distant star, they will continue virtually for ever... Long after the Earth is a burnt cinder from the sun's inevitable expansion these two could still be carrying our message to the stars...

Unless we get off our butts and get out there with them, they could be ALL that is left of us...

Fare well Voyager...

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Scientists Say Voyager 1 Has Left the Solar System, But Has It Really?

A new paper out today reports that the Voyager 1 spacecraft appears to have traveled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere. However, the data they cite is the same as what NASA Voyager scientists claimed in December 2012 was just a new region at the edge of the solar system that scientists didn’t even know was there. They called it a “highway” of magnetic particles, shepherding Voyager 1 out into interstellar space, whereas the new paper put out by the American Geophysical Union says Voyager has crossed a “heliocliff” and into interstellar space.

JPL spokesperson Jia-Rui Cook had just heard of the paper when Universe Today called this morning to verify the findings of the new paper. “Our last statement about this was the critical thing we were looking for was a change in the magnetic field data,” she said via phone. “This paper does not appear to address the magnetic field data.”

Cook said she is trying to get in touch with Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone, who is currently out of the country, to verify the paper’s claims that Voyager has left the solar system.

arrow3.gifRead more...

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Maybe it has maybe it didnt... This is about a very good and magnificent achievement, still going strong...

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Maybe it has maybe it didnt... This is about a very good and magnificent achievement, still going strong...

Agreed, the Universe Today article is not an attack on Voyager or the team that built or run it. It is, however, questioning the conclusions of the paper which claims that Voyager 1 has left the solar system.

What we are seeing here is science in action. Questioning conclusions is good science, in taking a sceptical stance science ensures that it separates the wheat from the chaff. Forcing scientists to defend their conclusions ensures that those which are not supported by the evidence or are just plain wrong get rejected, whilst those that survive the challenge become accepted.

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I would have loved to piggyback that.

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NASA Voyager Status Update on Voyager 1 Location

"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called 'the magnetic highway' where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed."

To learn more about the current status of the Voyager mission: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-381

The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

2013-107

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I guess the basic argument is when does the solar system end? Is it when the magnnetic field is no longer effected by the sun or when the bulk of the energy and material the probe contacts in interstealllar rather than solar. It has to be the magnetosphere soteh authors will have to defend their paper.

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Let's hope it has better luck than Pioneer 10 ;)

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Let's hope it doesn't take the path of the Star Trek Voyager, or it could arm itself!

:)

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Yea there isn't much to stop it out there. I presume at some point we will lose contact. I don't know if it will go near any of the nearby stars but I think that unlikely. Its course was determined by things it was needed for in the solar system. Besides, if it were to approach any nearby star, the event would be thousands if not millions of years from now. It's gonna be a lonely little machine for a long time.

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It just depends on what criteria you use to determine it passing out of the Solar System. Either when the vast majority of particles are of Cosmic or Solar origin... or when the Suns magnetic field no longer holds sway.

It really makes very little difference because, by any criteria, voyager WILL exit the solar system by all criteria, very soon (a few months to a couple of years). Its plutonium power cells will continue for maybe 10 - 15 years then it truly becomes inert... propelled on a lonely,40,000 year journey to the environs of the next Star - System in its sights.

A wonderful achievement by any standards and I take my hat off to all of those Engineers and Scientists that made it happen :yes::st:clap:

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Do not the Voyagers contain the gold discs with images of earth? Let's hope they are not misinterpreted by some alien civilization as "dinner is served"!

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Let's hope it doesn't take the path of the Star Trek Voyager, or it could arm itself!

:)

I was thinking about star trk the movie. V'ger anybody.

Do not the Voyagers contain the gold discs with images of earth? Let's hope they are not misinterpreted by some alien civilization as "dinner is served"!

Yes.

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Let's hope it doesn't take the path of the Star Trek Voyager, or it could arm itself!

:)

Yes.... VGer. :tu:

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Voyager 1 is not heading towards any particular star, but in about 40,000 years it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888 in the constellation Camelopardalis.

Here is more,... http://www.guardian....ve-solar-system

A lot more,... http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

Edited by Hazzard
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And in all that time Voyager 1 or 2 has not seen any Motherships or UFOs.. I say it must have seen something.

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Very cool if its this far away can we still get singles from it.

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Very cool if its this far away can we still get singles from it.

We'll be getting signals until the reactor dies in 14 years or so./ They need to listen with a deep space dish but how amazing that this old ship is providing data that we couldn't see again for at least three decades (guessing) if we tried.

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This is such a minor trip on the big scale of things and already the distances are beyond imagining. I can't visualize, relistically, how far away Voyager is. Voyager leaving the home star's influence makes you realize how tiny we are even when compared to just this solar system..

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And in all that time Voyager 1 or 2 has not seen any Motherships or UFOs.. I say it must have seen something.

Not necessarily, maybe they missed them as they were heading towards Earth, but you would think with the amount of "sightings" reported here, the UFO`s would have at least been a bit curious themselves as to what that object was flying past the other way?shrug.gif

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