Voyager 1 Finds Unexpected Wrinkles At the Edge Of the Solar System

Voyager 1 has been close to the boundary of the solar system for quite a while; we've mentioned that the edge is near a few times before, including an evidently premature report in 2010 that Voyager had reached a distance so far from the sun that it could no longer detect solar winds and another in 2011 that it had reached an "outer shell" of solar influence. It turns out that the boundaries of the solar system are fuzzier than once anticipated; the L.A. Times is reporting that "Toward the end of July 2012, Voyager 1's instruments reported that solar winds had suddenly dropped by half, while the strength of the magnetic field almost doubled, according to the studies. Those values then switched back and forth five times before they became fixed on Aug. 25. Since then, solar winds have all but disappeared, but the direction of the magnetic field has barely budged." Also at Wired, which notes "That's hard to explain because the galaxy's magnetic field is thought to be inclined 60 degrees from the sun's field. No one is entirely sure what's going on. ... [It's] almost as if Voyager thought it was going outside but instead found itself standing in the foyer of the sun's home with an open door that allows wind to blow in from the galaxy."

Re: It aint done left this galaxy yet ?

[tysonedwards]

Our galaxy is 120,000 light years across. Voyager is currently traveling 38,100 miles per hour, or 1/17600 the speed of light. As such, just to cross our galaxy, it would take 211.2 Million years. The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.54 Million light years away. Or if it were pointed towards Andromeda (it's not), it would take 44.7 Billion years to get there. Even traveling at Voyager speeds to Proxima Centari (our nearest star) would take 17600 years to get there. To recap, space is big... Really big.

Re: It aint done left this galaxy yet ?

[CastrTroy]

You may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

Re:XKCD

[Anonymous Coward]

http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/06/30/1318227/voyager-1-finds-unexpected-wrinkles-at-the-edge-of-the-solar-system [slashdot.org] 30 June 2013
http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/03/20/1757256/voyager-1-officially-exits-our-solar-system [slashdot.org] 20 March 2013
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/12/04/039257/voyager-1-so-close-to-interstellar-space-that-we-can-taste-it [slashdot.org] 03 December 2012
http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/12/07/2127247/voyager-1-exits-our-solar-system [slashdot.org] 07 December 2011
http://science.slashdot.org/story/05/09/26/1736216/voyager-1-sends-messages-from-the-edge [slashdot.org] 26 September 2005
http://science.slashdot.org/story/05/05/24/2334240/voyager-1-crosses-the-termination-shock [slashdot.org] 25 May 2005
http://science.slashdot.org/story/03/11/05/2019204/voyager-1-reaches-interstellar-space [slashdot.org] 05 November 2003

This has been going on for nearly 10 years. Arrghh!

Re:Close, but here is a better analogy

[Anonymous Coward]

Motor skills are controlled from the back of the brain, not from the front.

Re:Maybe its the HARDWARE

[GLMDesigns]

You do realize that, until very recently, all these creationists were split rather equally between both dems and reps. (The gay marriage and abortion issue pushed white evangelists into the Reps side.) The black population is over 50% creationist (and 90+ are dems) and almost 50% of those who classify themselves as liberal are creationists.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/05/who-are-the-creationists-by-the-numbers/#.UdBCoDu1H4s [discovermagazine.com]

Another thing to think about is that all creationists are not the same. There are they young earthers as well as those who accept that the earth is billions of years old but who think that God created life (and accept minor evolutionary change).

Re: It aint done left this galaxy yet ?

[msauve]

Not the Milky Way. Milliways [wikipedia.org], the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

Re: it is still working?

[tysonedwards]

Plutonium lasts for quite sometime, however yes the radioisotope thermoelectric generators on board are losing wattage year over year as that plutonium decays. In 2 years, the probe will no longer have the power necessary to record it's data for transmission, and in 12 years will no longer have the power necessary to run any of its scientific instruments. It's main systems will still be able to run for decades though due to much lower wattage requirements, but without being able to provide any readings, record data or transmit it back it will be essentially dead.

Re: XKCD

[khallow]

other than the rainbow which was put there by the almighty as a promise to not end the world again by flood most natural phenomena are pretty irregular, aren't they?

The rainbow is part of the Bifrost bridge connecting Midgar (Earth) to Valhalla. Any alternate interpretation is vile propaganda spread by Christian heretics trying to sap our precious bodily fluids and turn us away from honor.