voyager 1 enters space

[varek]

36 years after being launched, Voyager 1 has finally exited from our solar system and is carrying images and music from Earth into interstellar space. However, NASA says it has not yet left our solar system, since it is still within the Oort Cloud that surrounds us.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...1-has-entered-interstellar-space-9599916.html

 

[YellowSubmarine]

The time has come to add one more stroke to the log.

 

[Melakon]

36 years after being launched, Voyager 1 has finally exited from our solar system and is carrying images and music from Earth into interstellar space. However, NASA says it has not yet left our solar system, since it is still within the Oort Cloud that surrounds us.

Well make up your mind, it can't be both, either it did or it didn't.

 

[sojourner]

Boy, if I had a nickel for every thread created about voyager exiting the solar system.....

 

[Silvercrest]

36 years after being launched, Voyager 1 has finally exited from our solar system ... However, NASA says it has not yet left our solar system, since it is still within the Oort Cloud

Well make up your mind, it can't be both, either it did or it didn't.

Boy, if I had a nickel for every thread created about voyager exiting the solar system.....

This time the article just seems to be lampshading that they can't make up their minds.

 

[RoJoHen]

Boy, if I had a nickel for every thread created about voyager exiting the solar system.....

I was gonna say, hasn't this already happened? Like 4 times?

 

[Drone]

Perhaps one can simply take it as a striking example of a vehicle exhibiting quantum state behavior, in our own neck of the woods no less!!! Very interesting indeed...

 

[Haggis and tatties]

What would happen if it appeared on the opposite side of the solar system heading towards us. lol

 

[RoJoHen]

What would happen if it appeared on the opposite side of the solar system heading towards us. lol

I would probably just start watching TMP.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Boy, if I had a nickel for every thread created about voyager exiting the solar system.....

I was gonna say, hasn't this already happened? Like 4 times?

Then that means he has 20¢.

That's not adjusting for inflation of course.

 

[Spider]

It's getting very close to crashing into the wall with all the little lights on it.

 

[varek]

I think astronomers are still debating where our solar system ends and space begins. So, depending upon your theory, we have or have not entered the vacuum of space.

The androids from the Andromeda Galaxy who inhabited what became Mudd's World crashed because of the galactic barrier between their galaxy and ours. I wonder if the exterior of our solar system is similarly turbulent.

 

[publiusr]

I've often wondered if the heliopause, the Oort, the Kuiper belt--all serve as ground clutter in blocking any ET signals. Maybe put a radio telescope beyond all that junk.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I've often wondered if the heliopause, the Oort, the Kuiper belt--all serve as ground clutter in blocking any ET signals. Maybe put a radio telescope beyond all that junk.

That would take way over 40 years. Couldn't they just go "up" and accomplish the same thing?

 

[publiusr]

That is the plan--but at least getting behind the moon and away from Earth noise
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/space_telescopes_prt.htm

Wish-list missions for the Ares V range from a 150-meter-wide (492 ft) radio telescope dish to detect whispers from deep space to a 5-meter cube of super-pure water encased in light detectors to assay cosmic rays by their light flashes as they crash through the water. An optical telescope with a primary mirror up to 8 m (26 ft.) in diameter could search star populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies for the "fossil record" of their evolution. It could also hunt for "Earthshine spectra," faint signs of life in the light reflected by exoplanets.

http://cosmoquest.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-135585.html

 

[scotpens]

I think astronomers are still debating where our solar system ends and space begins. So, depending upon your theory, we have or have not entered the vacuum of space.

Doesn't "the vacuum of space" technically begin at around 60 miles altitude above sea level? If you mean "interstellar space" or "the interstellar void," that's something different.

 

[Metryq]

I think astronomers are still debating where our solar system ends and space begins. So, depending upon your theory, we have or have not entered the vacuum of space.

Doesn't "the vacuum of space" technically begin at around 60 miles altitude above sea level? If you mean "interstellar space" or "the interstellar void," that's something different.

No, humans are expected to clean up their own mess. The other civilizations just beyond our border have maid service. Think of it as the threshold for joining the real Federation. (So if Voyager crosses the border, it will be like WALL*E leaving his dirty tracks all over the Axiom.)

 

[PurpleBuddha]

I've often wondered if the heliopause, the Oort, the Kuiper belt--all serve as ground clutter in blocking any ET signals. Maybe put a radio telescope beyond all that junk.

That would take way over 40 years. Couldn't they just go "up" and accomplish the same thing?

The influence of the sun extends outward spherically from the sun in all directions, so going "up", or I would assume you mean perpendicular to the current direction voyager is traveling, would not decrease the distance a vessel would have to travel.

 

[publiusr]

It can even be worse than that--the solar system trails a bit, like a comet--but the boundary is still a fair number of AU out in any direction.

The answer? Bigger rockets, more fuel, nuclear thermal or nuclear electric drive payloads.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I've often wondered if the heliopause, the Oort, the Kuiper belt--all serve as ground clutter in blocking any ET signals. Maybe put a radio telescope beyond all that junk.

That would take way over 40 years. Couldn't they just go "up" and accomplish the same thing?

The influence of the sun extends outward spherically from the sun in all directions, so going "up", or I would assume you mean perpendicular to the current direction voyager is traveling, would not decrease the distance a vessel would have to travel.

I was thinking going "up" in relation to the plane of the solar system might get one clear of the "clutter" PurpleBuddha was talking about much faster.