Voyager 2 Shows Solar System Is "Dented" 173
Selikoff writes "NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has found that our solar system is not round but is 'dented' by the local interstellar magnetic field, space experts said on Monday. The data were gathered by the craft on its 30-year journey when it crossed into a region called the 'termination shock.' The data showed that the southern hemisphere of the solar system's heliosphere is being pushed in. Voyager 2 is the second spacecraft to enter this region of the solar system, behind Voyager 1, which reached the northern region of the heliosheath in December 2004."
Shape? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Shape? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Shape? (Score:4, Informative)
A Fire Upon the Deep (Score:2)
Small weather-like fluctuations at the periphery of this Zone are normal, but it only fluctuates wildly when there is some kind of a malignant, evil force that needs to be neutralized. The only question is how deep Earth is within the Unthinking Deeps.
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Re:Shape? (Score:5, Interesting)
Well the Sun has an innate shape. It is mostly a sphere, flattened a little bit by rotation. Other factors such as magnetic fields will play a part.
The solar wind is really the outer part of the sun, so in one sense we are embedded in the sun, and it flows around our planet. It has long been expected that the solar wind would meet the interstellar medium at some sort of bow shock on the upstream side with a tail of sorts on the downstream side.
This article suggests that magnetic fields which exist between stars also affect the shape of the boundary between the solar wind and whatever is outside it. Instruments on the Voyager spacecraft tell us which medium it is in at any point in time.
Re:Shape? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shape? (Score:4, Informative)
Basically the suns solar winds push back interstellar matter. This can have a shape.
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So what your saying is, out there in interstellar space is a giant space kitteh saying 'I has a shape, let me apply it to you'.
If it drops some giant space kitteh kibble while doing this, we are so screwed..
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Precisely
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human defined? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:human defined? (Score:5, Funny)
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Complete definition of pi:
4 * sum(i=1 to infinity) { (-1)^(i-1) (1/i) }
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Asking if there is something that exists that is not defined by humans is a tricky question. All of these things "exist", but all the tools we have for sensing them and measuring them are largely based on human-defined systems of measurements. We can't talk about these things without resorting to standards of measurement, which are wholly arbitrary and based on human experience.
So, yes, there
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However, in geometry, pi has the same sig
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Dent, paint primer, rust, and no hub caps (Score:2)
I don't get it (Score:1)
Voyager scientists had expected the temperatures within the termination shock to be about 1,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit (555,500 C) as material normally slows down and is heated up when it encounters an obstacle in a normal shock wave.
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
The density is very low. The body of the spacecraft might get hit by individual molecules which have that temperature, but what are a few thousand molecules going to do to it?
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Informative)
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Look up the difference between "heat" and "temperature".
The ultra-low density gas that contacts the spacecraft can not conduct much heat. What matters is not the temperature of the gas but the temperatur of the spacecraft.
I, for one... (Score:5, Interesting)
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STOP! Geek time-
or be destroyed by Klingons...
That was a Pioneer, not Voyager. You can tell by the plaque; I think non-canon lit rules it Pioneer 11.
or even return to Earth is a horrible epic adventure involving the Enterprise....
Did you ever see the director's cut DVD that came out a few years ago? It's a much better film, still a bit slow, but the visual effects are much better -- and were restored in a manner in keeping with the original concepts -- and now I think it's the best of the odd-numbered Treks. The cuts they made, the proper sound mix and the good visuals let you focus a lot more on the story
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Please hand in your old geek card and accept this jewel-encrusted platinum VIP pass. Your lifetime achievement award is in the mail.
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Its not really hostile (Score:5, Interesting)
If I ever do the transhuman thing and get turned into software, The Oort cloud is where I would want to be for serious durability.
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Re:Its not really hostile (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the "cold" of space doesn't help at all. Because the density of particles is so low, spacecraft can't cool down by convection. Cooling spacecraft (eg shedding internally generated heat) is a big problem. Also, the main "harsh" ingredient of space is radiation. The technology used in spacecraft is usually way behind commercial technology because it also has to be "rad-hardened."
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Spoken like a PC salesman...
Rad-Hardened CPU's and what-not are time-tested, and just work. A lot of the reason that they are "behind" isn't because new rad-hardened components can't be made (in fact they have), it's because satellite engineers have higher discipline levels when it comes to code-reuse and risk-management of software.
Using an old chip (if it's fast enough and meets other requirements) with code that has not caused a failure of any mu
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Hey, there's no reason to start name-calling! If you re-read my post, you'll see the thrust of my message was about cooling, not modern hardware. I mentioned "behind" because it takes years for new technology to be in enough demand for manufacturers to "bother" with rad-hard stuff. Yes, "behind" hardware can often do a great job, but often the new tech is much lower power (very important in space) due to shrunken geomet
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Re:I, for one... (Score:5, Funny)
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The Truth (Score:3, Funny)
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By looking at the dent we've made it worse!!!! (Score:2)
(OK, I'm sorry for saying sizzel. I don't know what come over me. I'm gonna go sit down. My head is spinning.)
Obviously (Score:5, Funny)
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-God
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Dented? (Score:3, Funny)
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It seems logical (Score:2, Funny)
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Which Z?
All of them.
Wow... (Score:1)
Is this any better than conjecture? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is this any better than conjecture? (Score:5, Informative)
FTA:
"Voyager 2 entered the termination shock almost 1 billion miles closer within the southern hemisphere of the heliosphere of the solar system than Voyager 1 previously had," said Voyager Project scientist Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology.
Re:Is this any better than conjecture? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, they seem to base their conclusion not only on that fact, but also because they had theorized that it might be that way from computer models that predicted when Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 reached the termination. So far Voyager 1 (actually, not sure on V1) and Voyager 2 reached the termination shock around where they thought they would according to the model that the Solar System is asymmetrical as described in TFA. (This [www.cbc.ca]arcicle briefly mentions the computer model)
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two data points, and that's enough. (Score:2)
And that's enough. If the heliosphere were a sphere, then by definition every point on its surface would be equidistant from the Sun. Now that they know two points are not equidistant from the Sun, they know it's not a sphere.
What they don't know is how big the "dent" is. It could be no bigger than the spacecraft, of course, although that is extraordinarily unlikely. Or it could be enormous. This is probably what you mean: they
My bad (Score:3, Funny)
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Teenagers...
Halp! (Score:5, Insightful)
Could someone remind me how to orientate myself in the universe?
Re:Halp! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Halp! (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Halp! (Score:5, Informative)
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Or you could use the plane of the solar system which contains planetary orbits as the "equator" and then decide to orient one as "north" to either the celestial pole or the pole star.
Really, it's not that hard.
Mod Parent "informative" (Score:2)
Still a very good Solar System. (Score:2)
There goes our hopes for a near mint Solar System.
Someday we'll finally end destroying the Earth and start with the rest. This gives us a head start.
another ding in the solar system (Score:3, Funny)
Should have parked farther out, not close to any other solar systems. Probably won't even meet the deductible.
That's a relief (Score:2)
Not the dent... (Score:2)
I have updated Wikipedia to reflect this (Score:2, Funny)
The Wikipedia entry for "Solar System" has a bunch of silly stuff about planets and moons and asteroids and other useless stuff, so I've deleted it all and replaced it with the much more informative: "not round, but Round-ish"
How does it stand the thermal shock? (Score:1)
I know we are not talking ambient temperature which would vaporize the probe. How dense is the matter and how do you measure this kind of energy?
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isn't much (Score:3, Informative)
It doesn't damage the spacecraft because, as anyone who has put out a candle flame with his fingers can tell you, it's not temperature that is dangerous but heat. Things with very little heat to transfer -- in this case, some unbelievably tiny amount of matter -- but at very hi
It's like.... (Score:1, Redundant)
Nevertheless, I'm sure a few are planning to file anyway this morning, "just in case".
I just find it amazin (Score:1)
It traveled a huge distance, over a rather large period of time, and it still function.
if that doesn't desrve a 'WOW'** that i don't know what does.
*No MS/Linux jokes please
**No World of Wa
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still an hour....even more amazing
you look at the sun, and that's a sun from an hour ago....if sun disappeared you would still see it for an hour. It's an old realization, that quite a few stars I see at night don't even exist anymore.
This is not a new fact to me, but it never ceases to amaze me. Puts everything in perspective somehow. Just proves to you if you see something it doesn't really mean it's there or it even exists anymore. BTW Anyone got a clue how lo
Almost 12 light-hours, actually (Score:5, Informative)
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I'm not sure if that was tongue-in-cheek, but the signal round-trip time to the voyagers are over 29 hours for V1 and closing on 24 hours for V2. Distance, in other words, is roughly 15 & 12 light _hours_. Heck even the sun itself is 8 light-minutes away. 30-40 light-seconds isn't very far, really.
Awww... (Score:1)
King of All Cosmos went on a bender again... (Score:3, Funny)
Uh-oh! (Score:2)
This makes me wonder... (Score:2)
Is there any way to get the US public behind a long-term investment like the Voyagers again?
Dented Solar System (Score:2)
1 atom per cubic centimeter (Score:2)
better vacuum than any on Earth. The solar wind blows up a huge "bubble" in galactic space, and Voyager is just getting to the edge of it.
It is interesting but hardly surprising that so tenuous a gas so far from the Sun is buffeted by the even more tenuous gas flowing in the galaxy.
Well that's just great. (Score:2, Funny)
Voyager... 2? (Score:2)
I should have check.... (Score:2, Funny)
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