FSTDT Forums
Community => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Søren on September 13, 2013, 12:37:24 am
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The first man made object has officially left the Solar System!
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/09/13/nasas-voyager-exits-solar-system
However, US space agency scientists now agree that Voyager is officially outside the protective bubble known as the heliosphere that extends at least 13 billion kilometre beyond all the planets in our solar system, and has entered a cold, dark region known as interstellar space.
Their findings - which describe the conditions that show Voyager actually left the solar system in August 2012 - are published in the US journal Science.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/18906308/voyager-1-leaves-solar-system/
Last year, scientists monitoring Voyager 1 noticed strange happenings that suggested the spacecraft had broken through: Charged particles streaming from the sun suddenly vanished. Also, there was a spike in galactic cosmic rays bursting in from the outside.
Since there was no detectable change in the direction of the magnetic field lines, the team assumed the far-flung craft was still in the heliosphere, or the vast bubble of charged particles around the sun.
The Voyager team patiently waited for a change in magnetic field direction — thought to be the telltale sign of a cosmic border crossing.
But in the meantime, a chance solar eruption that shook Voyager I last spring provided the scientists with the data they needed, convincing them the boundary had been crossed in August of last year.
With the new data, "it took us 10 seconds to realize we were in interstellar space," said Don Gurnett, a Voyager scientist at the University of Iowa who led the new research, published o
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Long Distance Voyager. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Distance_Voyager)
Godspeed, giver of knowledge.
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The first man made object has officially left the Solar System!
The first that we know of...
*Put's on a tinfoil hat*
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(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/voyager_1.png)
http://xkcd.com/1189/ (http://xkcd.com/1189/) Title Text: So far Voyager 1 has 'left the Solar System' by passing through the termination shock three times, the heliopause twice, and once each through the heliosheath, heliosphere, heliodrome, auroral discontinuity, Heaviside layer, trans-Neptunian panic zone, magnetogap, US Census Bureau Solar System statistical boundary, Kuiper gauntlet, Oort void, and crystal sphere holding the fixed stars.
The comic was published on March 22.
So.. yeah.
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(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/voyager_1.png)
http://xkcd.com/1189/ (http://xkcd.com/1189/) Title Text: So far Voyager 1 has 'left the Solar System' by passing through the termination shock three times, the heliopause twice, and once each through the heliosheath, heliosphere, heliodrome, auroral discontinuity, Heaviside layer, trans-Neptunian panic zone, magnetogap, US Census Bureau Solar System statistical boundary, Kuiper gauntlet, Oort void, and crystal sphere holding the fixed stars.
The comic was published on March 22.
So.. yeah.
Are there any more things it can do that count as leaving the solar system or is that it?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIAZWb9_si4&feature=youtu.be
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft captured these sounds of interstellar space. Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument detected the vibrations of dense interstellar plasma, or ionized gas, from October to November 2012 and April to May 2013.
The sounds are kinda creepy tho.
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Am I the only one who is suprised it only took 36 years? I honestly though it would've taken even longer. The solar system is smaller than I thought (tho obviously still huuuuuuuuuuuge).
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Also, stupid question - what is Voyager 1 actually detecting? Vibrations don't travel through a vaccum (or at least sounds don't and sounds are just vibrations so I assume all vibrations don't travel in a vaccum), so is it radio waves or something it picks up?
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It ain't a perfect vacuum out there. Interstellar space is filled by very very sparse gas.
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It ain't a perfect vacuum out there. Interstellar space is filled by very very sparse gas.
Ah yes, of course. Thanks.
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Not to mention the dark matter. Lots of things out there make sounds on many different wavelengths. It's a concert, maaaaan... *Lights up*
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I think the instruments on Voyager are interpreting the ionized particle mass vibrations as if it were sound, based on the wave frequency interpreted into Hertz (audible).
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The youtube link does have the explanation for it, by the way... Which I quoted part of.
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It once took me 36 years to get around to trimming the front hedges.
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It once took me 36 years to get around to trimming the front hedges.
Were they even hedges at that point? ;D