Voyager 1 Reaches a Point of Contention (Edge of Solar System?)

[pmbryant]

From the LA Times: Nov 6 2003

Voyager 1 Reaches a Point of Contention

By Usha Lee McFarling
Times Staff Writer
November 6, 2003

After 26 lonely years and about 8 billion miles of travel, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has become the first human-made object to leave the solar system. Maybe.

A group of astronomers announced Wednesday that Voyager 1 had crossed the "termination shock" at the edge of the solar system where the sun's powerful influence wanes and the solar wind drops from supersonic speeds to a relative whimper.

But another group argued that the spacecraft still has a journey ahead before it reaches this outer limit. They contend that the strange readings collected by the aging craft in the last few months came from a "foreshock," and were nothing more than a brief hint of the exotic territory that lies ahead.

The one thing the rivals do agree on is that Voyager 1 has entered a final frontier — far beyond our system's most distant planet, Pluto — unlike anything humans or their space probes have encountered before.

(snip)

The spacecraft is now cruising through a turbulent realm where radiation pulses are a hundred times more than normal, and the solar winds that speed past Earth at a million mph abruptly slow as they push up against the great celestial winds that travel between the stars. The pioneering spacecraft has entered a region with a different chemical mix that is bathed in streams of peculiar cosmic rays.

(snip)

More: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-voyager6nov06,1,4046189.story?coll=la-home-leftrail

[MartinAmbroseForan]

Maybe it will encounter Kucinich!

I'm sorry, I could not help myself.

GO DENNIS!

[cyclezealot]

11. What the hell.

There is no grounds for such comments. There is no basis for any such comparsion. You are subjected to media centered crap who reject any such free thinker; whose mental compass is not centered by 'show me the money.'
If you would listen to him at a rally and hear him speak off the cuff and realize his intellect is equal to an Adlai Stevenson or Eleanor Roosevelt, you just might know what you are talking about.
Dennis is not given his chance to present his ideas; we who seek solutions to our societal problems, instead of just hang on to some kind of personality cult devoid of a moral center- we just might ride out 2004 for nothing better to do.
Who have you been listening to a Chris Matthews or some such shrill.

[Guaranteed]

13. Oh come on...

It was just a joke- and it was funny. Of course we all love Dennis. :)

[cyclezealot]

17. Marginal, who says?

I probably overreacted. Just really p+ssed of Fox news called him marginal and detracts from the debate. Fox news spin on laterst debate....And morons believe this s+i+. He has more to say the the rest of the other nine put together.
As Terkel says, DK can't get anywhere,it is not DK's fault but America's.. I have heard him talk off the cuff for 60 minutes. No notes.....Thought I was back in college in a Current Affairs class, spellbound by my favorite professor.
I am really disgusted with American culture that Americans do not have the energy to be more critical about their news sources and candidates become 'marginal' because FOx news wants to control the debate. The country is hopeless.
For years back, my belief is if a candidate is marginal, he/she needs get our attention..

[Code_Name_D]

27. This just in... Voyager fails to fined Iraq WMD

:P

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Whether the astronomers agree about it or not

this is still a tremendously exciting point in the history of science. Too bad it's not getting more publicity.

[GAspnes]

7. most people don't care about

much beyond the next beer. This is a tremendous accomplishment for humanity. Those of us with a bit o' vision appreciate it.

[RuB]

12. Did someone say beer?

And I wonder if Voyager is making those R2D2 sounds like when it was afraid?

http://www.moviewavs.com/Movies/Star_Wars/r2d2wst4.wav

[pmbryant]

8. I agree. Tremendously exciting.

This has been anticipated for so long. I really got goosebumps when I loaded the LA Times front page and saw the headline "Voyager 1 Reaches Solar System Exit Point".

:wow:

Alas, now they've changed the headline to "Voyager 1 Reaches A Point of Contention". Perhaps technically more precise, but not nearly so romantic. I think the original headline captures the spirit of the moment a lot better.

:bounce:

--Peter

[Wonk]

2. It'll be back in 300 years to try and kick Captain Kirk's ass

;-)

[frank frankly]

4. ha

you got me, wonk!

LOL on a cold dark night!

thanks :hi:

[Selwynn]

10. HAHAHAHAHA!

Thanks for the memories...

Watching Star Trek: TMP with my father as a kid...

Veegur NEEDS the information... :D

[jus_the_facts]

3. I heard about it on the news tonight....last segment on ABC nightly news..

....what a long strange trip it's been...and prolly gonna get a LOT strranger too!! Sail on V-GER!! :D

[Wonk]

5. Here's another link that doesn't require registration

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031105/ap_on_sc/solar_system_s_edge_1

[burrowowl]

6. Would that we spent

money on helping humans and expanding our knowledge instead of f*#king weapons of mass destruction.
Bon voyage Voyager!

[peterh]

9. Just had the strangest thought while reading this…

That old “tower of Babel” fable came to mind and was wondering when it might start transmitting back in a different language……I hate it that happens….go Voyager

[Atlant]

16. You mean like switch from ASCII to EBCDIC??? (NT)

[DeaconBlues]

14. 26 years down...

only 50 thousand more to go to reach the distance of the nearest star (besides the sun). Damn, space is big!

[Gman]

15. So when does Vee-ger decide it wants to find the Creator?

Maybe after 2020.

[Beetwasher]

18. Has It Gone Through the Ort Cloud?

Is the Ort Cloud inside the Heliopause boundary? Anyone?

[Minstrel Boy]

19. Good question. I was going to say probably yes, but then

I read this:

"It will take them another 40,000 years, scientists estimate, to pass through the Oort Cloud, the sphere of cometary nuclei that are the last of the known objects held by a faint gravitational pull of our Sun. Then, Voyager 1 will be within 1.6 lightyears (9.3 trillion miles) of a star in the constellation Camelopardalis, the first time Voyager will be nearer to another star than they are to the Sun, according to Stone. Then 250,000 years after that, Voyager 2 will fly by Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky, 4.3 lightyears or 25 trillion miles away."
http://www.planetary.org/voyager25/voyager-story.html

40,000 years! Yikes, that's a lot of Oort.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. Yes, this is why we shouldn't expect

to see interstellar travel anytime soon. The nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is four light years away, a mere hop skip and jump in cosmological terms, but in order to reach it in four years, you'd have to be traveling at the speed of light, or approximately 6 million miles an hour. (Whoosh!)

Unless some unimagined new form of propulsion ("warp drive," anyone?) is invented, our nine planets are it for the foreseeable future.

[Beetwasher]

23. Thanks!

n/t

[pmbryant]

21. Oort cloud is a lot further out

A lot!

And not really detectable by Voyager's instruments anyway, I would guess. :shrug:

EDIT: Thanks MinstrelBoy, for answering this question first. I missed your post somehow.

--Peter

[Beetwasher]

22. Thanks!

n/t

[pmbryant]

24. Kick for the afternoon crowd (n/t)

[ozone_man]

25. "But the solar wind detector broke in 1990."

A great article. Some times you actually have to be proud of the human race.

"If Voyager 1 could measure the solar wind directly, astronomers would have a clear answer about whether it crossed the termination shock. But the solar wind detector broke in 1990."

[Minstrel Boy]

26. Our descendents will look back at the 1970s with astonishment

The Voyager spacecraft were launched.

Visits to the moon became boring.

The Concorde flew.

The space shuttle was born.

The salad days of the scientific progress ideal. All in the past now.