Voyager craft exits the Solar System

[snapman]

An artist's impression of Voyager 1 as it passes across the Milky Way

The Voyager-1 spacecraft has left the Solar System, the first man-made object to do so.

Launched in September 1977, the probe was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.

The US space agency (Nasa) reports that Voyager has now entered a realm of space beyond the influence of our Sun.

This interstellar region is calculated to be more than 18 billion km from Earth, or 123 times the distance between our planet and the Sun.

Voyager-1 is on course to approach a star called AC +793888, but it will only get to within two light-years of it and it will be tens of thousands of years before it does so.

Confirmation of the probe's exit from the heliosphere - the bubble of gas and magnetic fields originating from the Sun - was confirmed on Tuesday in a release by the American Geophysical Union.

The organisation has accepted a scholarly paper on the topic from Nasa scientists that will be published shortly in the house journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The announcement had been expected for some time.

Cosmic ray detection

Voyager had been monitoring changes in its environment that suggested it was about to cross the Solar System's border - the so-called heliopause.

It had been detecting a rise in the number of high-energy particles or cosmic rays, coming towards it from interstellar space, while at the same time recording a decline in the intensity of energetic particles coming from behind, from our Sun.

A big change occurred on 25 August last year, which scientists said was like a "heliocliff".

"Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere," explained Prof Bill Webber from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

Voyager-1 was launched on 5 September 1977, and its sister spacecraft, Voyager-2, on 20 August 1977.

The probes' initial goal was to survey the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - a task they completed in 1989.

They were then despatched towards deep space, in the general direction of the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Their plutonium power sources will stop generating electricity in about 10-15 years, at which point their instruments and transmitters will die.

The Voyagers will then become "silent ambassadors" from Earth as they move through the Milky Way.

Source: BBC News - Voyager craft 'exits' Solar System

 

[reggie124]

Nasa Denies Voyager 1 Solar System Exit Claim

Nasa Denies Voyager 1 Solar System Exit Claim

Nasa has denied a claim made in a scientific study that its Voyager 1 spacecraft had left the solar system, describing the report as "premature".

Scientists are eagerly awaiting signs that the craft, which was launched in 1977 on a mission to study planets, has become the first man-made object to leave the boundaries of our solar system.

A scientific paper that purported to describe this departure appeared on the American Geophysical Union's website.

It said Voyager 1 "appears to have travelled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere," or the magnetic bubble of charged particles that surround the solar system.

Researcher Bill Webber, one of the article's authors, acknowledged that the actual location of the spacecraft - whether in interstellar space or just an unknown region beyond the solar system - remained a matter of debate.

"It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that," said Mr Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, according to the AGU's website.

"We're in a new region. And everything we're measuring is different and exciting."

However, shortly after the study appeared, Nasa spokesman Dwayne Brown said the report was "premature and incorrect".

The Voyager science team reported in December 2012 the craft was in a new region called the "magnetic highway," but changes in the magnetic field to show a departure from the solar system have not yet been observed, Nasa said.

"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that Nasa's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.

"It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space," he said.

"A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed."

Voyager 1 and its companion Voyager 2 set off in 1977 on a mission to study planets. They have both kept going, and both are on track to leave the solar system, Nasa has said.

For months, experts have been closely watching for hints that Voyager 1 has left the solar system and most have estimated that this will happen in the next year or two.

Nasa has described Voyager 1 - now 11 billion miles away from the Sun - and its companion Voyager 2 as "the two most distant active representatives of humanity and its desire to explore".

The Voyager craft are both carrying gold-plated phonograph records and cartridges on which to play them.

 

[Firemouth]

better hope it does not return as a super powerful cybernetic organism then. lol

one question here:

the report says "beyond the influence of the sun".
how can this be?
the ort cloud is held in place by the suns gravity. and that is said to stretch for 2 light years around our solar system!

 

[danforth]

Another question, if I may.

I watched a Horizon program recently, "How big is the Universe".
Despite the effort to dumb these things down, I am even dumber than they anticipate.

I gather the Stephen Hawkins bunch have invented dark matter to make their sums match the apparent reality
in relation to calculated, gravitational pull, rather than admit they were wrong.

My question is, if you can't see, or detect it, yet it still has mass (hence pull) why hasn't Voyager hit some ?
Surely it would cause damage, unless dark matter is conveniently outside solar orbit..

Also, now they have found out that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate.
This doesn't fit their sums either, so they have invented dark energy.

The chancellor performed a similar feat yesterday.:Biggrin2:

I admire Stephen Hawkins for the way he copes with his problems, especially since he sucked the "go compare"
man into a worm hole. Told you I was dumb ! :Biggrin2:

Horizon also mentioned that now a special kind of telescope can rapidly latch onto a super nova, and watch it
over a longer period, flickers in the red shift suggest that the distance away varies.
Since that is obviously wrong, the conclusion can only be that the speed of light is not constant across the
galaxy / universe. That's really going to upset the applecart !

Since you now know the level of my intellect, can anyone reply in terms I can understand ?
I don't do space / time bending etc so as simple as possible please !:Biggrin2:

 

[Firemouth]

Another question, if I may.

I watched a Horizon program recently, "How big is the Universe".
Despite the effort to dumb these things down, I am even dumber than they anticipate.

I gather the Stephen Hawkins bunch have invented dark matter to make their sums match the apparent reality
in relation to calculated, gravitational pull, rather than admit they were wrong.

My question is, if you can't see, or detect it, yet it still has mass (hence pull) why hasn't Voyager hit some ?
Surely it would cause damage, unless dark matter is conveniently outside solar orbit..

Also, now they have found out that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate.
This doesn't fit their sums either, so they have invented dark energy.

The chancellor performed a similar feat yesterday.:Biggrin2:

I admire Stephen Hawkins for the way he copes with his problems, especially since he sucked the "go compare"
man into a worm hole. Told you I was dumb ! :Biggrin2:

Horizon also mentioned that now a special kind of telescope can rapidly latch onto a super nova, and watch it
over a longer period, flickers in the red shift suggest that the distance away varies.
Since that is obviously wrong, the conclusion can only be that the speed of light is not constant across the
galaxy / universe. That's really going to upset the applecart !

Since you now know the level of my intellect, can anyone reply in terms I can understand ?
I don't do space / time bending etc so as simple as possible please !:Biggrin2:

ok, I'll try.
Dark matter first:

nobody "invented" it that and Dark energy are just names given to the 90% odd of the universe we cant actually see, but can detect the effects they have.
none of it is inconsistent with either of Einstein's famous theories.

as for why voyager hasn't hit any?
nobody is sure if there is anything to hit, well in our reality anyway.
it may well turn out to be the missing 9 dimensions M theory predicts.
and that again is consistent with all our current theories.

Expanding universe now:
we have always known, well since the mid 1930's, that the universe is expanding as we have known its expanding at an increasing rate.
the solution to this has to be we cant see a large portion of our reality.
this too is consistent with all the theories mentioned before.

Red shift next:
as red shift is optical, anything between us and the subject can have an effect on our perception of it.
we have note for some time that some galaxy's far out towards the edge of our vision seem to be moving faster than the speed of light, as we use red shift to measure their speed, there could be many reasons for it. we just don't know why, as yet.
add the fact that quantum theory says we change things just by looking at them. and the evidence of our eyes (optical evidence) become far less reliable

thing with saying Einstein's theories of relativity are wrong is, as yet all the supposed inconsistency fit well into the standard model, when we get a grasp of them.

its all made even more difficult by the fact that or reality may not actually exist, in the terms we see it.
I'll expand this last bit, if you wish.
but be warned it sounds like some sort of fantasy sci fi world

 

[danforth]

we have note for some time that some galaxy's far out towards the edge of our vision seem to be moving faster than the speed of light, as we use red shift to measure their speed, there could be many reasons for it. we just don't know why, as yet.
add the fact that quantum theory says we change things just by looking at them. and the evidence of our eyes (optical evidence) become far less reliable

thing with saying Einstein's theories of relativity are wrong is, as yet all the supposed inconsistency fit well into the standard model, when we get a grasp of them.

its all made even more difficult by the fact that or reality may not actually exist, in the terms we see it.
I'll expand this last bit, if you wish.
but be warned it sounds like some sort of fantasy sci fi world

Please do, this is pitched at a level I can understand (or maybe just think I can).
As you may know, I'm not a lover of religion, but astronomy is revealing something as divine as I can imagine, and always has.
How could you not look, and boggle, and wonder, even on a casual basis ? So, a fantasy sci fi world is even more appealing,
because if I don't know differently, how can I refuse to accept the possibility ? :THANKS:

 

[snapman]

Nasa Denies Voyager 1 Solar System Exit Claim

Nasa Denies Voyager 1 Solar System Exit Claim

Nasa has denied a claim made in a scientific study that its Voyager 1 spacecraft had left the solar system, describing the report as "premature".

Scientists are eagerly awaiting signs that the craft, which was launched in 1977 on a mission to study planets, has become the first man-made object to leave the boundaries of our solar system.

A scientific paper that purported to describe this departure appeared on the American Geophysical Union's website.

It said Voyager 1 "appears to have travelled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere," or the magnetic bubble of charged particles that surround the solar system.

Researcher Bill Webber, one of the article's authors, acknowledged that the actual location of the spacecraft - whether in interstellar space or just an unknown region beyond the solar system - remained a matter of debate.

"It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that," said Mr Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, according to the AGU's website.

"We're in a new region. And everything we're measuring is different and exciting."

However, shortly after the study appeared, Nasa spokesman Dwayne Brown said the report was "premature and incorrect".

The Voyager science team reported in December 2012 the craft was in a new region called the "magnetic highway," but changes in the magnetic field to show a departure from the solar system have not yet been observed, Nasa said.

"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that Nasa's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.

"It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space," he said.

Was about to post this mate. Seems some scientists are happy to "jump the gun" for headlines. Disappointing.