Voyager 1 Reaches Interstellar Space 565
letxa2000 writes "CNN is reporting that Voyager 1, now some 8.4 billion miles (90 AUs) from the sun, has left the solar system and entered interstellar space by reaching the heliopause. However, whether the probe has reached the heliopause or is just coming close is the subject of two papers to be published in Thursday's Nature Magazine. The probe supposedly has enough nuclear fuel to last until 2020. Will it be able to find anything interesting outside the solar system in the next 17 years?"
to paraphrase (Score:3, Insightful)
Short answer: No.
Long Answer: "Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space... " -DNA
communicating? (Score:2, Insightful)
Meanwhile (Score:1, Insightful)
Why is it that we can brainwash the masses into thinking that it's okay for us to spend billions on space crap while ignoring the homeless people living in the streets and at the YMCA?
I'll never understand a society that says it's okay to blow billions on meaningless stuff in the name of science while ignoring all the social issues that plague us.
How many lean cuisines can you buy with the money we've spent on Voyager? How much beef jerky could you purchase with the billins we spend on the space shuttle?
Gah.
Money isn't the problem (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure why I'm bothering to respond to this obvious troll, but here goes...
We already have enough resources to take care of all the needy people not only in this country but on this planet. The real problem is that society, as a whole, just doesn't care enough about the unfortunates enough to do anything. If we were to stop sending any money on space exploration, that money would not get immediately diverted to persons in need. It would most likely end up funding tax breaks so that people can buy a new SUV. Or maybe it would "disappear" in a S&L fraud or HUD "misappropriation".
I grow tired of hearing people complaining that we should divert money from science towards needed social programs. Those programs are underfunded because we just haven't made them a priority. Slashing someone else's budget isn't going to make that money magically appear in the budget of social programs. We would need a real fundamental change in attitudes of elected officials and the voting public.
GMD
Oh please... (Score:3, Insightful)
Would "we the people" ever hear about it? Or would the find be a classified secret due to so-called national/international security risks and issues?
It wouldn't matter whether it was classified or not. A secret that big would not stay a secret for long. There are leaks all the time. Christ, we've already managed to let the Chinese obtain detailed information about every nuclear weapon in our arsenal. I'm sure if we ever got a clear sign of extraterrestial intelligence, word would slip out in a matter of days. Some things are just way, way too important to expect that every single individual with access to that information would keep their trap shut.
GMD
Re:26 years.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:to paraphrase (Score:3, Insightful)
What we're talking about here is a new situation, where the current theories of gravity aren't giving the right numbers even at a macroscopic scale. That is, if there isn't some other hidden force that we can't observe.
I would personally rather believe that our theories of gravity are wrong, as opposed to thinking the universe is magically permeated with huge amounts of massive stuff that we quite inconveniently cannot detect.
Re:What if.... (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~springer/
Re:12.5 Hours (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Speed of Sound in Space (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed, science can be distilled down to a set of little sound-bite facts that are easily repeatable. "There is no sound in space" is one of them. However what most people for some reason do not understand is that this is a SOUND BITE.
It is far too common for Slashdot readers to immediately object to something because it clashes with their boiled down kiddy version of science.
Here's some news for you: the space surrounding the sun is far from empty, in fact it is filled with atoms, electrons, and ionized gas. Its density is low enough that a human would not perceive it without an instrument. But sound can quite easily travel through gas, no matter how thin. Clearly the sound cannot travel any faster than the individual particles themselves are moving. Hence it is very easy to define the speed of sound in a gas.
No, I'm not claiming to be a scientist or above anyone else in terms of scientific knowledge, but it really pisses me off when people's first reaction is to DOUBT THE SCIENTISTS. Sure, they can be wrong sometimes, but I think it would be respectful to go do a little research before claiming, as if you are some kind of expert, that they are wrong.
Re:to paraphrase (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Voyager is now mostly past the 'comets and stuff'.
2. Getting useful information about space from telemetry means you have to track an object which you know the properties of. We know approximate mass for most comets. We know exact mass, composition, initial velocity, acceleration vectors and more about Voyager. This means we don't have to guess these in calculations, which means we get quite a bit more detailed info out of them.
Re:Money isn't the problem (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, don't assume that people heading to a shopping center are after the liquor store, there may also be a grocer there selling something more cost-effective that the fast food joint and healtier too!
OK, so maybe she was out for a quick fix but after such a kind gesture, why not give here the benefit of the doubt too.
Capitalism is the problem (Score:2, Insightful)
You might be able to teach someone to fish, but the but at some point the economy may not have any need for more fishermen (or whatever other job skill). All the unempolyed coders reading this can attest to this.
Re:The mind boggling nature... (Score:3, Insightful)
Exploring this solar system with experimental high-velocity nuclear engines is appropriate. But in 20 years we could probably send something to the nearest stars in 50 years. In 40 years perhaps it will only take 25 to travel -- thus we should wait 40 years before launching to arrive first
Re:to paraphrase (Score:3, Insightful)
That would effectively put Voyager outside the heliopause but still within Sol's Oort cloud.
I like the end of the Wikipedia article:
It is thought that other stars are likely to possess Oort clouds of their own, and that the outer edges of two nearby stars' Oort clouds may sometimes overlap, causing the occasional intrusion of a comet into the inner solar system.
The reason I find this significant is that I remember hearing that it is believed some comets might be the ferriers of organic material, life even, from other stars and solar systems, and they may even be what seeded life here, in this solar system.
So I hope they scrubbed down Voyager properly before launching it, otherwise countless years from now, it could crash-land on a planet somewhere and the microbes it is carrying (if they survived the trip) might
- Have no effect
- Seed life on a world
- Cause a plague that kills all indiginous life on another planet because their immune systems are unable to cope with the microbes.
Which do you think will happen?
I'm taking bets.