After 35 years, Voyager nears edge of solar system

http://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/160609488/after-35-years-voyager-nears-edge-of-solar-system

by dirktheman • 14 years ago

161 48 14 years ago

npr.org

anovikov2• 14 years ago

First time i heard that was 'Voyager was nearing edge of solar system' when i was in high school.

Two9A• 14 years ago

That's because there are many edges of the solar system.

The one you probably heard about was the termination shock, where the solar wind goes subsonic. I forget how far out that is, but it's closer than the heliopause.

From the graphs of radiation intensity, Voyager is either in a big bubble of interstellar space trapped in the heliopause, or actually through and out the other side. It's exciting either way.

danielweber2• 14 years ago

Query: how do you define "subsonic" in the near-vacuum of spce?

dennisgorelik• 14 years ago

Could it be that definition of edge of the solar system would change in such a way that Voyager would always be nearing its border?

kibwen• 14 years ago

Additional reading:

"The heliopause is the theoretical boundary where the Sun's solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium; where the solar wind's strength is no longer great enough to push back the stellar winds of the surrounding stars. Voyager 1 is expected to cross the heliopause by 2014. The crossing of the heliopause should be signaled by a sharp drop in the temperature of charged particles, a change in the direction of the magnetic field, and an increase in the amount of galactic cosmic rays."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliosphere#Heliopause

cstuder• 14 years ago

And apparently the heliopause is already overdue: http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/09/missing-voyager-1-yet...

gokhan• 14 years ago

So Stone can't say how long it will be before Voyager passes through it.

"I can't tell you whether it's days, months or years. I really can't tell you," he said.

I'm not complaining, but that's why we hear this story over and over again, every 3 months for the last 10 years.

dirktheman5• 14 years ago

It depends on your definition of ‘edge of solar sytem’, as there are many definitions around. What amazes me the most is that we built something 35 years ago, shot it into space and it’s still going strong, sending radio signals from a place so far away that it takes 16 hours to get here. They supplied it with an 8-track disc that contains information about earth and humanity.

To me, this speaks volumes about the brilliant naivety of that era, and I mean naivety in the most positive way possible: an uncurbed enthousiasm where you don’t see all the implications and problems on your path, but just execute. Did they think about the fact that 8-track records would be outdated by the time the Voyager would reach a destination where alien life would be possible? It seems not. But they built the thing, and it’s still doing what is’s supposed to do. This mindset has been missing for a long time, although the new Mars Rover project has got my hopes up again.

alberich• 14 years ago

> What amazes me the most is that we built something 35 years ago, shot it into space and it’s still going strong, sending radio signals from a place so far away that it takes 16 hours to get here.

I completely agree. I remember reading about Voyager 1 and 2 back in 1989, when I was a just a child, and thinking how cool it was that humans could build something to send into space and it could last so long. 23 years later, it is even more impressive that it is still out there and kicking... and may last another 10 years :) It is very impressive, to say the least.

_ouxp• 14 years ago

I agree with you that it speaks volumes about the optimism of the era. That said, Sagan & Druyan gave a great deal of thought to the "message in a bottle": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record

kabdib• 14 years ago

"Are we there yet?"

:-)

The fact that this old spacecraft is still sending us useful data is pretty neat, and I don't mind being reminded of it. I remember the various flybys (Jupiter, Saturn, and my local PBS station's "Neptune All Night").

In the age of consumer products that last a couple of years before they disintegrate, a 35 year old machine still operating in a hostile environment is an inspiration.

CodeCube2• 14 years ago

Considering it's life expectancy is already about half over ... we should launch another probe or two (perhaps in the opposite direction?). We have better today these days and could probably build it to go for many decades longer. The sooner we launch, the sooner our kids will have data.

dirktheman5• 14 years ago

We already did: the New Horizons is out there, too. But in the 60's and 70's there was a lot more budget than these days...

CodeCube2• 14 years ago

oh cool, hadn't seen that. Hopefully the probe will keep going after its initial mission to pluto has concluded.

danielweber2• 14 years ago

One big reason for launching when they did was the conjunction of the planets that let them slingshot past so many of them. Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions happen every 20 years or so, but getting Uranus/Neptune in the mix (which Voyager 2 did, IIRC) is a lot more rare.

noinput• 14 years ago

> Voyager 1 can keep talking to Earth for about another decade. That's how long the plutonium that powers it should last. After it falls silent, it will still keep going. But it will be about 40,000 years before it wanders close to another star.

Something about that last paragraph that brings the whole article full circle with lofty, child-like dreams. Makes me wonder if mankind will create the technology (and find a way possible) to go out into deep space and pass Voyager before that happens.

ChuckMcM• 14 years ago

I am often inspired by the Voyager program because I see it as one where the program planners did not put limits on themselves. And the fact that it would be 40,000 years before the problem came close to another star was also fascinating.

And then I consider that its only been in the last decade were we've been looking at asteroids in an effort to identify potential disasters before they happen. If some alien probe went through our solar system, it is only just now that we would notice it at the size of Voyager, and then we wouldn't pay attention because if it re-entered the atmosphere it wouldn't do significant damage. Doesn't bode well for the aliens seeing it unless they are looking for it.

ars2• 14 years ago

The only current candidate is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons but I don't think it has enough plutonium to last as long as Voyager, plus it's not as fast as Voyager and will never pass it.

Voyager is so fast because it took advantage of an unusual planetary alignment.

technotony• 14 years ago

I love how old fashioned the images look. Even to me, 35 years on, we look like untechnologically sophisticated... what a difference the microprocessor makes!!

adrianwaj• 14 years ago

At least now it can hit a worm hole and the Veloxi will know Earth's inhabitable. Thanks NASA.

bbayer• 14 years ago

Year 2012, human kind can get signals from 35 years-old spacecraft which is passing edge of solar system.

Year 2012, I can barely have signal reception with my brand new smartphone at my home.

jnazario• 14 years ago

actually i was just reading on the SciAm blogs about this, and learned a bit more about the edge of our solar system (and how the scientists involved in this effort are tracking progress).

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/09/05/...

key comment: 'Decker and his colleagues conclude from the plasma measurements “that Voyager 1 is not at present close to the heliopause, at least in the form that it has been envisioned up to now.” '

just an interesting addendum to the story that NPR glossed over.

prawn• 14 years ago

Amazingly, still 10-20,000 years from the Oort Cloud.

brianmackey• 14 years ago

Am I really the only person who hears about Voyager and immediately thinks of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"? At least reality is comporting with canon, vis-à-vis V'Ger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxAaVqdz_Vk

After 35 years, Voyager nears edge of solar system

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