Voyager 1 Goes Interstellar
<div class="IPBDescription">Heliopause reached.... probably</div> <!--QuoteBegin--CNN+--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (CNN)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Craft reaches, perhaps passes, solar system edge
Wednesday, November 5, 2003 Posted: 1:27 PM EST (1827 GMT)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Voyager 1 spacecraft, the most distant human-made object, has reached the end -- or perhaps just the beginning of the end -- of our solar system, scientists argue in two new studies.
As of Wednesday, 26 years after its launch, NASA's Voyager 1 was 8.4 billion miles (13.5 billion kilometers) from the sun. That's 90 times the distance separating the Earth from the sun.
As the robotic spacecraft continues to push far beyond the reach of the nine planets, two teams of scientists disagree whether it passed into the uncharted region of space where the sun's sphere of influence begins to wane.
The sun sends out a stream of highly charged particles, called the solar wind, that carves out a vast bubble around the solar system.
Beyond the bubble's ever-shifting boundary, called the termination shock, lies a region where particles cast off by dying stars begin to hold sway.
That region, called the heliopause, marks the beginning of interstellar space and the end of our solar system. Whether Voyager 1 reached that mark or is still on approach remains unclear, with scientists providing evidence for both claims. Details appear Thursday in the journal Nature.
"Neither explanation is certain," writes Len Fisk, of the University of Michigan, in an editorial accompanying the two studies.
Scientists have long theorized that a shock wave exists where the hot solar wind bumps up against the thin gas of the interstellar medium. A similar shock wave precedes aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound, causing a sonic boom.
In space, the violent encounter slows the solar wind from supersonic velocity to subsonic speed, and causes a pileup of particles.
As they accumulate, the particles increase in temperature. Also, as they skip back and forth across the shock boundary, they are accelerated and energized.
Scientists have pored over data from Voyager 1 for evidence of any of those activities, which would suggest the one-ton spacecraft has reached the termination shock. The one instrument that could measure the solar wind velocity and give somewhat of a definitive answer ceased working years ago.
One team, studying lower energy particles, inferred that the solar wind velocity did tail off beginning in August 2002, suggesting Voyager 1 temporarily reached the termination shock.
"The inference that the solar wind's velocity basically went to zero seemed to us to be rather compelling argument we were in the vicinity of the termination shock and the boundary of the solar system," said Louis Lanzerotti, of Bell Laboratories and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a co-author of the first study.
A second team, analyzing higher energy particles, suggested the higher density of particles encountered by Voyager 1 represents merely a precursor of things to come and that the termination shock still lies beyond.
"We say what we are seeing is exactly what we would expect to see as we approach the shock," said Frank McDonald, of the University of Maryland, and a co-author on the second study. "We are not there yet."
Further observations from Voyager 1 -- as well as Voyager 2, which trails its faster twin -- should resolve the dispute, as well as provide information about a never-before-probed region of space. The nuclear-fueled probes should last to 2020.
"We are beginning the exploration of a new frontier," said Voyager project scientist Edward Stone, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/11/05/voyager.solar.boundary.ap/index.html' target='_blank'>Link</a>
Wednesday, November 5, 2003 Posted: 1:27 PM EST (1827 GMT)
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Voyager 1 spacecraft, the most distant human-made object, has reached the end -- or perhaps just the beginning of the end -- of our solar system, scientists argue in two new studies.
As of Wednesday, 26 years after its launch, NASA's Voyager 1 was 8.4 billion miles (13.5 billion kilometers) from the sun. That's 90 times the distance separating the Earth from the sun.
As the robotic spacecraft continues to push far beyond the reach of the nine planets, two teams of scientists disagree whether it passed into the uncharted region of space where the sun's sphere of influence begins to wane.
The sun sends out a stream of highly charged particles, called the solar wind, that carves out a vast bubble around the solar system.
Beyond the bubble's ever-shifting boundary, called the termination shock, lies a region where particles cast off by dying stars begin to hold sway.
That region, called the heliopause, marks the beginning of interstellar space and the end of our solar system. Whether Voyager 1 reached that mark or is still on approach remains unclear, with scientists providing evidence for both claims. Details appear Thursday in the journal Nature.
"Neither explanation is certain," writes Len Fisk, of the University of Michigan, in an editorial accompanying the two studies.
Scientists have long theorized that a shock wave exists where the hot solar wind bumps up against the thin gas of the interstellar medium. A similar shock wave precedes aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound, causing a sonic boom.
In space, the violent encounter slows the solar wind from supersonic velocity to subsonic speed, and causes a pileup of particles.
As they accumulate, the particles increase in temperature. Also, as they skip back and forth across the shock boundary, they are accelerated and energized.
Scientists have pored over data from Voyager 1 for evidence of any of those activities, which would suggest the one-ton spacecraft has reached the termination shock. The one instrument that could measure the solar wind velocity and give somewhat of a definitive answer ceased working years ago.
One team, studying lower energy particles, inferred that the solar wind velocity did tail off beginning in August 2002, suggesting Voyager 1 temporarily reached the termination shock.
"The inference that the solar wind's velocity basically went to zero seemed to us to be rather compelling argument we were in the vicinity of the termination shock and the boundary of the solar system," said Louis Lanzerotti, of Bell Laboratories and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a co-author of the first study.
A second team, analyzing higher energy particles, suggested the higher density of particles encountered by Voyager 1 represents merely a precursor of things to come and that the termination shock still lies beyond.
"We say what we are seeing is exactly what we would expect to see as we approach the shock," said Frank McDonald, of the University of Maryland, and a co-author on the second study. "We are not there yet."
Further observations from Voyager 1 -- as well as Voyager 2, which trails its faster twin -- should resolve the dispute, as well as provide information about a never-before-probed region of space. The nuclear-fueled probes should last to 2020.
"We are beginning the exploration of a new frontier," said Voyager project scientist Edward Stone, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/11/05/voyager.solar.boundary.ap/index.html' target='_blank'>Link</a>
Comments
Up to the moment when supersonic speed was first reached by the Bell X-1, half of the scientific community thought that at the speed of sound, the pressure of air in front of the aircraft would reach an infinite level, and the aircraft would smash into a wall of solid air, hence the term "sonic barrier". Imagine being the testpilot of that craft. So there's no reason not to keep trying, is there?
What do you mean, "only now"? As far as species in general go, ours has been around for a very short time. And, considering what a small percentage of our time has been spent on solid technological research, we've accomplished a hell of a lot.
But if by "we" you mean this generation of living humans: yes, unfortunately :/
on the other hand...
heliopause: 17.6 billion miles
alpha centauri: 7.9 trillion miles...
voyager launched: ~25 years ago
voyager traveling: .7 billion miles/year
time it would take a spacecraft of voyager's speed to reach alpha centauri: 5562 years
hence my pessimism
in space, there's no friction, so isn't acceleration permanent? you'd think it wouldn't be so hard to go as fast as you want... just keep accelerating and you never decelerate... obviously I'm no rocket scientist tho :>
There is <i>some</i> friction. Very, very little but it's there. Space isn't a perfect vacuum.
I'm surprised it's still going after all this time. I thought it would have been beaten up by rocks or run out of energy since it got so far from the sun...like Disco I'm no rocket scientist though :>
on the other hand...
heliopause: 17.6 billion miles
alpha centauri: 7.9 trillion miles...
voyager launched: ~25 years ago
voyager traveling: .7 billion miles/year
time it would take a spacecraft of voyager's speed to reach alpha centauri: 5562 years
hence my pessimism
<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
yes and that's if it's going straight to it, and the signal is powerful enough for us to get anything out of the communication.
And <i>hope</i> is the word. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
There will come a time where technology allows us to catch up to voyager. Maybe we'll bring her home and put her in a museam.....
maybe we'll just let her go
gg voyager, gg!
its just drifting
We're never going to get any further into space if your dumbarse generation can't learn to read.
MonsE: 1
Teenangsters: 0
Owned.
its just drifting <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Radio is a slow traveling wave/energy. Radiowaves can not be destroyed but I would take a VERY LONG time to send at that distance.
Isn't voyager the one that they put all that information on, like the location of earth, the basic anatomies of the male and female body, and some math equations (since math is the language of the universe) and music?
Now, if we can just get around to terraforming and colonizing another planet...
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->You are the children of a dead planet Earthdeidre
We will take you you, but, we will too catch the planetdeath disease?
Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Modern technologies nowadays (Ion Engine) basically means for a lot less propellant mass we can keep going farther.