Spacecraft reaches edge of solar system

[ThePresence]

CNN

 

[Rilescat]

will they find the Oret cloud, or big space mushrooms?

 

[Electric Amish]

*sigh*

They don't build-em like that anymore...

 

[dvdrdiscs]

interesting. i bet the aliens would be laughing at our 12 inch vinyl (sorta) disc that we sent on board it.

 

[dvdrdiscs]

btw, i kinda skimmed the article but did it say anything about us still being able to retrieve data once it's outside of the solar system? seems technically unlikely but just a though.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: dvdrdiscs
btw, i kinda skimmed the article but did it say anything about us still being able to retrieve data once it's outside of the solar system? seems technically unlikely but just a though.

Cell Phones were not invented then

Ausm

 

[Scarpozzi]

Ahead lies the journey to the star next door. Traveling at its predicted speed, Voyager 1 will get there in about 40,000 years.

Umm....what's the point again?

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi

Ahead lies the journey to the star next door. Traveling at its predicted speed, Voyager 1 will get there in about 40,000 years.

Umm....what's the point again?

The "point" ended in 1980 when it studied Saturn. Everything from then on is just gravy.

 

[shiner]

Wow....how did it get past Uranus?

 

[MailBoxHead]

Originally posted by: shinerburke
Wow....how did it get past Uranus?

Most of us wash ours.

 

[Ausm]

Holaycrap it took voyager 1 23 years traveling 1 million miles a day to get to the edge of the solar system!1

Ausm

 

[dvdrdiscs]

Originally posted by: shinerburke
Wow....how did it get past Uranus?

it held it's nose close?

 

[DrPizza]

Another science article written by a journalism major....

The author contradicts himself. So, is it or isn't it crossing the edge of the solar system?

"Voyager is beginning to explore the final frontier of the solar system."

- from a scientist

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.

- journalism major

"This is our first look at the incredibly dynamic activity in the solar system's outer limits."

- scientist

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.

So, according to that article, the probe is past the boundary of the solar system, entering into interstellar space, but experts hope that some time during the next 20 years, we get to monitor the spacecraft's journey through... the outer boundary delineating the edge of interstellar space.

edit: what the scientists mean is that there's a wide region considered to be the outer boundary... the probe is entering or just about to enter that region. The journalist seems to think that there's a line... this side is solar system, that side is outer space.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: ausm
Holaycrap it took voyager 1 23 years traveling 1 million miles a day to get to the edge of the solar system!1

Ausm

Exactly. This makes star trek and all that seem like such a joke. Interstellar travel seems impossible...

 

[MaxFusion16]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: ausm
Holaycrap it took voyager 1 23 years traveling 1 million miles a day to get to the edge of the solar system!1

Ausm

Exactly. This makes star trek and all that seem like such a joke. Interstellar travel seems impossible...

which is why they had something called the warp drive

 

[DrPizza]

nah, interstellar travel isn't impossible. Don't forget, that thing is 26 years old. It was designed to study Saturn, not to go flinging past saturn and out of the solar system.

 

[Bootprint]

Damn, it takes over 12 hours for light from the Sun to reach it.

Weekly status reports, up to Mid September.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: ausm
Holaycrap it took voyager 1 23 years traveling 1 million miles a day to get to the edge of the solar system!1

Ausm

Exactly. This makes star trek and all that seem like such a joke. Interstellar travel seems impossible...

1 million miles per day is EXCRUTIATINGLY slow. Once we're capable of hitting .75*c , interstellar travel will be very possible. It won't be practical until someone discovers some FTL physics, however.

 

[bigredguy]

Originally posted by: dvdrdiscs
btw, i kinda skimmed the article but did it say anything about us still being able to retrieve data once it's outside of the solar system? seems technically unlikely but just a though.

Yeah, said until somewhere around the year 2020.

 

[MrDingleDangle]

pretty cool

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
nah, interstellar travel isn't impossible. Don't forget, that thing is 26 years old. It was designed to study Saturn, not to go flinging past saturn and out of the solar system.

Exactly. This thing was built with leading edge technology from before 1977!!!!

 

[sillymofo]

I think the data that was sent along with the satelite does not transmit anything back, but rather messages that would rely on a higher intelligence to decipher it and then they would know how or where to contact us.

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
I think the data that was sent along with the satelite does not transmit anything back, but rather messages that would rely on a higher intelligence to decipher it and then they would know how or where to contact us.

Higher intelligence with a record player.

 

[eofeapr]

What a complete waste of money !!! Aint nothing but rocks out there, planets that are frozen, some with atmospheric gases that would fry a human in an instant. Pure waste of money I think !!!

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Kenazo

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
I think the data that was sent along with the satelite does not transmit anything back, but rather messages that would rely on a higher intelligence to decipher it and then they would know how or where to contact us.

Higher intelligence with a record player.

I think they have a makeshift phonograph needle & horn in there to play back the record.

I just find it amazing that we can build these types of craft able to travel so far and transmit back so much information...yet I can't get a TV signal from the station 20 miles away