Maybe Voyager I has left our Solar System

[BringBackThatOleTimeBoys]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21866532

35 years after being launched to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, one of the Voyager probes may have left our Solar System....scientists are investigating data. It's flying "only" at 38,610mph.

Problem is there are no city limit signs out there.

Up until a few months ago, Voyager I was measuring a steady stream of the Solar Wind, but now it's detecting particles that apparently from other stars and interstellar space.

This is from 16 light-hours away, but comets and other objects may orbit our Sun from maybe 1-2 light-years out.

So where is the edge of our Solar System? Hopefully this probe last long enough to answer that.

Only 110 years ago, the Wright Brothers flew - now we have an object that may be telling us what intergalactic space is like.

To blow your mind on the size of the known universe, check out http://scaleofuniverse.com/

 

[BringBackThatOleTimeBoys]

Amazing facts on Voyager I > http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/didyouknow.html

Cowboys perspective:

• It was launched before Dallas won their 2nd SB
• Before nearly anyone on the current roster was born
• Richardson was the edge of the Dallas metro area
• Oldsmobile was the best-selling sedan in America and it's sound system included an 8-track
• The TV series Dallas had not aired yet
• no Mavericks yet
• Stars still in Minnesota
• Rangers made their first serious run to get in the playoffs (missed)

 

[Shunpike]

Help me understand something please.

Voyager 1 is roughly 17 light years away from us. And it was launched in 1977 (35 years ago)

So does this thing is moving along the space at half the light speed? No way

 

[BringBackThatOleTimeBoys]

^ Voyager I is 16 or 17 light-hours away from Earth.

Some of it's journey it was not even flying at 35,610 mpg...it will take thousands of years to travel a light-year from us.

 

[Tabascocat]

I think where some are getting confused is the solar system compared to our galaxy. The math adds up to possibly leaving the solar system but in no way is Voyager even close to exiting our galaxy.

 

[Shunpike]

^ Voyager I is 16 or 17 light-hours away from Earth.

Okay. Stupid me. Thanks for the correction. I should read stuff more carefully

 

[BringBackThatOleTimeBoys]

^ no problem.

Topic is kind of confusing in the fact Voyager I could be entering interstellar space, but not quite out of our Solar System. See quote below.

But there is a more definitive and unambiguous frontier, which the Voyagers will approach and pass through. This is the heliopause, which is the boundary area between the solar and the interstellar wind. When Voyager 1 crosses the solar wind termination shock, it will have entered into the heliosheath, the turbulent region leading up to the heliopause. When the Voyagers cross the heliopause, hopefully while the spacecraft are still able to send science data to Earth, they will be in interstellar space even though they will still be a very long way from the “edge of the solar system”. Once Voyager is in interstellar space, it will be immersed in matter that came from explosions of nearby stars. So, in a sense, one could consider the heliopause as the final frontier.

 

[Nova]

Maybe someone can help clear this up for me...

{hopefully while the spacecraft are still able to send science data to Earth, they will be in interstellar space even though they will still be a very long way from the “edge of the solar system”.}

What does this mean exactly? How is it possible to be in interstellar space and still be far from the 'edge of the solar system'... isn't interstellar space anything outside of the solar system? Or is that just deep space...?

Are interstellar and deep space not synonyms?

 

[9darter]

To blow your mind on the size of the known universe, check out http://scaleofuniverse.com/

That was pretty cool.

 

[BringBackThatOleTimeBoys]

Maybe someone can help clear this up for me...

{hopefully while the spacecraft are still able to send science data to Earth, they will be in interstellar space even though they will still be a very long way from the “edge of the solar system”.}

What does this mean exactly? How is it possible to be in interstellar space and still be far from the 'edge of the solar system'... isn't interstellar space anything outside of the solar system? Or is that just deep space...?

Are interstellar and deep space not synonyms?

The scientists themselves made this confusing.

Some said Voyager left the Solar System, but other scientists the next day said, no it's on the edge.

Most of us think solar systems have one boundary, then there is interstellar space, then you enter another solar system.

Best I can make out of all this, is our Solar System has layers, and Voyager has entered an outer one....comets are out there still orbiting the Sun, but the atomic particles are no longer just the Solar Wind - some are particles from other stars.

I think of it like far west Flower Mound on FM 3040 - in city limits, but nothing developed and definitely looks like country.

Hope that makes sense.

 

[Nova]

The scientists themselves made this confusing.

Some said Voyager left the Solar System, but other scientists the next day said, no it's on the edge.

Most of us think solar systems have one boundary, then there is interstellar space, then you enter another solar system.

Best I can make out of all this, is our Solar System has layers, and Voyager has entered an outer one....comets are out there still orbiting the Sun, but the atomic particles are no longer just the Solar Wind - some are particles from other stars.

I think of it like far west Flower Mound on FM 3040 - in city limits, but nothing developed and definitely looks like country.

Hope that makes sense.

That's a pretty good analogy. I checked out the definition for deep space vs interstellar space, and I still don't have a clear understanding of the difference.

But it would make sense that the idea of deep space is pretty concrete (anything beyond the solar system) but it's still has yet to be solid boundary or definition set since we don't exactly know where/when the Solar System ends because it's actually easier to observe other star systems than it is to observe that region.

 

[Kristen82]

Kind of feel sad about Voyager and the Mars Rovers. Kind of wussy of me to anthropomorphize them, but I picture them as being lonely way out there. Wish there was some way to get them back and give them nice homes to live out their retirements in.

Wonder if Voyager will be able to clear the Oort cloud without getting smacked by debris a billion times.

 

[BringBackThatOleTimeBoys]

Only 110 years ago, the Wright Brothers flew - now we have an object that may be telling us what intergalactic space is like.

To blow your mind on the size of the known universe, check out http://scaleofuniverse.com/

I meant interstellar space. :


Really stretching things, but it can't be totally off topic if it's about stars. :starspin

 

[BringBackThatOleTimeBoys]

Kind of feel sad about Voyager and the Mars Rovers. Kind of wussy of me to anthropomorphize them, but I picture them as being lonely way out there. Wish there was some way to get them back and give them nice homes to live out their retirements in.

Wonder if Voyager will be able to clear the Oort cloud without getting smacked by debris a billion times.

Did you know that was the plot of the first Star Trek movie? "V'ger" (yes - Voyager) acquired intelligence and came back?