dragon2fire

i did a serch did not find this anywere

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/1...ary/index.html


"This is a very exciting time, said Voyager project scientist Edward Stone. "Voyager is beginning to explore the final frontier of the solar system."

Scientists analyzing data from Voyager 1 disagree as to whether the probe has yet crossed over the critical boundary that marks the transition from our solar system into interstellar space. But even dissenters agree that if it has not crossed that boundary, called terminal shock, it is very close.

"We're in the neighborhood. This is sort of a Lewis and Clark space expedition: We're in the foothills, and we'll soon be getting to the mountains, in our view," said Frank McDonald, a research scientist at the University of Maryland.

Voyager 1's journey marks a major scientific milestone: For the first time, a man-made object has traveled 8.4 billion miles (13.5 billion kilometers), about 90 times the distance between the Earth and sun. Ahead lies the journey to the star next door. Traveling at its predicted speed, Voyager 1 will get there in about 40,000 years.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were the first space probes to explore the outer planets of our solar system. Voyager 1's primary mission ended in 1980 when it completed its observations of Saturn. Since then, it has been headed into deep space. In 1998, it passed the Pioneer 10 space probe and became the most distant man-made object from Earth.


'First taste' of the beyond

Now, scientists from the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory and colleagues believe Voyager 1 crossed into the area marking the edge of the solar system.

"Voyager 1 is giving us our first taste of interstellar space," said Tom Krimigis, of the Applied Physics Laboratory, in a written statement. "This is our first look at the incredibly dynamic activity in the solar system's outer limits."

Contrary to popular belief, space is not an empty void. Rather, our solar system is awash in the solar wind, the charged gases that flow off our sun at supersonic speed. At the termination shock boundary, the solar wind dissipates and begins to give way to the interstellar medium -- the gases that float in the void between stars.

Instruments aboard Voyager 1 are able to measure the speed of the solar wind, and the Applied Physics Lab's analysis of that data suggests the spacecraft has hit the terminal shock boundary. The findings are published in the November 6 edition of the journal Nature.

A different view

A second article in Nature offers a more conservative analysis. The University of Maryland team interprets additional data from Voyager 1 to mean the spacecraft is approaching the termination shock boundary, but has yet to hit it.

"What we see, the observations agree very well with what Tom has described," said McDonald with the University of Maryland. "We just interpret them differently. That we're in the neighborhood of the termination shock, and we haven't crossed it."

Whichever the case, scientists are particularly excited as the 26-year-old probe still has operating scientific instruments. NASA says Voyager 1 still has enough power to beam back data through about the year 2020.

By that time, experts hope to also monitor the spacecraft's journey through something called the heliopause, the outer boundary delineating the edge of interstellar space. As these outer reaches of the solar system have never been explored, it is unclear exactly where these boundaries lie.

Voyager 1 and 2 both carry a so-called "golden record" -- a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk that is actually a phonograph record. The disk carries greetings and an overview of our culture to extraterrestrials that may one day stumble across one of these man-made craft.

The record includes samples of music; nature sounds such as thunder, waves crashing, bird songs; and greetings in multiple languages, including from then President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. Pictographs on the disk explain how it should be played. A phonograph needle is included.



This is so cool we are out there people


this probe is sending us all sorts of information

any way thought others might find this interesting

ObieX

There was lots of info there that i didnt see elsewhere too. Thanks for the info

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GakFace

Wow, sweetness.. I can't wait to see what we find out whats in the "void"

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lordjeebus

It's amazing to think that thousands of years from now, when no one alive remembers that we ever lived, Voyager 1 will still be floating around out there. Carrying greetings from Jimmy Carter.

ARTelevision

The true VOID out beyond there - as there gets to be progressively less and less "stuff" at all - (as in way, way out there) - that's the mother of us all. I take a lot of comfort in the fact that I issued ultimately from nowhere.

Yes. It's very cool to be probing the first fringes of all that.

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Cynthetiq

V'ger... I love it!!!!

It's an amazing feat think back to those days and think of the technology it took to do it.... it's truly night and day.

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Gortexfogg

That's just some amazing stuff. To think Voyager will keep sending info back till 2020...it is just mind boggling stuff that we've only begun to send probes to the furthest regions of our solar system. Space is awesome!

JStrider

very cool... its really amazing that its still out there and able to send signals back to us after 27 years... i bet its a pretty exciting time to be a researcher thats getting to study the data from it...

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Cynthetiq

now that I think about it.. some of the people going over the research materials weren't even born when the thing was launched... amazing longevity.

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dragon2fire

bump

so all can read it

rogue49

The amazing thing is that it's been traveling this long at great speeds
and just now getting to the edge of just our solar system.

We are just an average solar system just on the outer edge of an arm
one of billions in a galaxy,
of which there are billions too...

It shows you how big everything else is in comparison.
It's hard to comprehend.

koopabox0rz

Yeah, I heard about this. We're finally probing into deeper space and I'm glad to hear of this.

dragon2fire

your right rouge it really does help put things into presepctive

dragon2fire

ok one more time then i let it die

bump

splck

Here's a pic I took while flying in space last night...enjoy

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nice line eh?

JoenOcoee

I get giddy when I read about space technology as well. This site explains the new shiny ION engine that NASA has. It can only be turned on in space and it will accelerate for just short of forever apparently.




http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/tech/sep.html

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Nisses

a golden record? Hope the aliens never copy it, or the RIAA will be all over them.

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dragon2fire

hey thats cool splck

Cycler

Keep on going... Jimmy Carter, shakes head.

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Stare At The Sun

Makes me wish that we would have spent all those billions of dollars on nasa and science instead of guns and bombs in iraq...*sigh*, still, very coo

gloveshot3

i just wish humanity would have continued to explore and develop space for the good of everyone, not just for the military wants of the few nations powerful enough to get there.

santafe5000

But didn't Kirk and Spock find Voyager 1, heading back to Earth a couple of years ago. Seems like that was in the news. hehehehe

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