Where no man(made object) has gone before

[Archinerd]

Congrats Voyager 1!

The Voyager-1 spacecraft has become the first manmade object to leave the Solar System.

Scientists say the probe's instruments indicate it has moved beyond the bubble of hot gas from our Sun and is now moving in the space between the stars.

Launched in 1977, Voyager was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.

Today, the veteran Nasa mission is almost 19 billion km (12 billion miles) from home.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24026153" target="_blank

[LordMortis]

[LawBeefaroni]

Launched in 1977, Voyager was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.

Today, the veteran Nasa mission is almost 19 billion km (12 billion miles) from home.

To think, it's gone a whole 0.00204133714 light year! Carl's record still has a bit of a way to go to find a needle.

It's interesting to note that depending on definitions and models, Voyager 1 may have left as early as last year:

NASA's Voyager project scientist, Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, explains:

"Details of a new model have just been published that lead the scientists who created the model to argue that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft data can be consistent with entering interstellar space in 2012. In describing on a fine scale how magnetic field lines from the sun and magnetic field lines from interstellar space can connect to each other, they conclude Voyager 1 has been detecting the interstellar magnetic field since July 27, 2012. Their model would mean that the interstellar magnetic field direction is the same as that which originates from our sun.

Other models envision the interstellar magnetic field draped around our solar bubble and predict that the direction of the interstellar magnetic field is different from the solar magnetic field inside. By that interpretation, Voyager 1 would still be inside our solar bubble."

[Bakhtosh]

Saw a joke once about how many times it's "left our solar system"

Figures it would be xkcd
http://xkcd.com/1189/" target="_blank

Would be hilarious if it hit the inside of the Dyson Sphere here in a couple of years.
We are the galaxy's "Truman Show".

[Kraken]

Yeah, scientists have been arguing over this for a few weeks now because the heliopause wasn't what they were expecting. . Kind of anticlimactic, and it wouldn't surprise me if they add a couple more hash marks to that xkcd cartoon before V'ger's power runs out.

[AWS260]

Some nice details about the Voyager team in this article. The lead scientist is 77 years old, and so is the engineer they pulled out of retirement to re-code the software controlling the 8-track data recorders.

[hitbyambulance]

Some nice details about the Voyager team in this article. The lead scientist is 77 years old, and so is the engineer they pulled out of retirement to re-code the software controlling the 8-track data recorders.

what is stunning to think about is that Voyager I was re-coded from Earth!

[Isgrimnur]

Voyager 2

Ever since leaving Earth 41 years ago, the Voyager 2 spacecraft has sailed across the solar system on a stream of energetic particles from the sun.

But on Nov. 5, the whistling of the solar wind abruptly stopped. The current of charged particles dissipated. There was a period of turbulence, and then the probe found a strange new quality to the environment around it, the way the air smells of salt when you get close to the sea.

Voyager had crossed heliopause, where the river of solar particles meets the vast ocean of interstellar space. It is now beyond the bubble of our sun’s influence, NASA announced Monday.

For the second time in history, a human-made object has ventured into the void between the stars.

Its companion probe, Voyager 1, crossed that threshold in 2012. But Voyager 2 has a scientific leg up on its predecessor: It still possesses a working plasma instrument. This allows the spacecraft to sense a different kind of charged particle, called galactic cosmic rays.

After decades of looking at the galaxy “through the clouded lens of our heliosphere,” said physicist Georgia de Nolfo, “we’re now able to take a step outside with Voyager and contemplate the vistas of our local galactic neighborhood.”

[Kraken]

And yet, it's still 300 years away from the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, and 40,000 years from finally leaving the influence of the sun's gravity, which defines the outer edge of the cloud. Which made me wonder: How much actual evidence do we have for Oort's existence and size? Well, it's hypothetical. Long-period comets have to come from somewhere, and models of star formation suggest that such a reservoir should exist. But there's no observational evidence, and Voyager's reactor will be dead long before it gets there.

[GungHo]

And yet, it's still 300 years away from the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, and 40,000 years from finally leaving the influence of the sun's gravity, which defines the outer edge of the cloud. Which made me wonder: How much actual evidence do we have for Oort's existence and size? Well, it's hypothetical. Long-period comets have to come from somewhere, and models of star formation suggest that such a reservoir should exist. But there's no observational evidence, and Voyager's reactor will be dead long before it gets there.

So the next one needs a nuclear reactor like what's on the U.S.S Ronald Reagan. That reactor ought keep a suitcase sized probe going for about 10,000 years. Sounds cheap too so I'm sure NASA is on it. But I agree that a long term goal should be a study of the Oort Cloud as I think it could dramatically help us improve our chances of IDing any 'rogue asteroids hell-bent on destroying us'.

[Jeff V]

So the next one needs a nuclear reactor like what's on the U.S.S Ronald Reagan. That reactor ought keep a suitcase sized probe going for about 10,000 years. Sounds cheap too so I'm sure NASA is on it. But I agree that a long term goal should be a study of the Oort Cloud as I think it could dramatically help us improve our chances of IDing any 'rogue asteroids hell-bent on destroying us'.

Presumably we'll continue to develop and deploy much faster probes that will quickly fly by older models. The more complicated you make them, the more that can go wrong. I don't think our ancestors are going to be wishing those probes had more gas to continue functioning until the reach the edge of the Oort cloud - hell, by then they might already be mining Oortlings and other objects on the fringe.

[Kraken]

An ion-propulsion engine that delivers continuous low thrust could make such a probe feasible, if NASA felt compelled to investigate the Oort Cloud and Congress was willing to wait a century or so for its investment to pay off. IDK how fast an ion-propelled craft could go -- I think it's a respectable fraction of light speed, given enough time -- but it would still take quite a while to get there.

But I agree that a long term goal should be a study of the Oort Cloud as I think it could dramatically help us improve our chances of IDing any 'rogue asteroids hell-bent on destroying us'.

Most of the objects that can threaten Earth come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is right in our back yard, as astronomical distances go. We occasionally get some visitors from the Kuiper Belt, which starts at around Pluto's distance. The Oort Cloud is so much farther away that objects there are unlikely to threaten our planet -- in fact, astronomers aren't 100% sure that it exists.

[GungHo]

An ion-propulsion engine that delivers continuous low thrust could make such a probe feasible, if NASA felt compelled to investigate the Oort Cloud and Congress was willing to wait a century or so for its investment to pay off. IDK how fast an ion-propelled craft could go -- I think it's a respectable fraction of light speed, given enough time -- but it would still take quite a while to get there.

But I agree that a long term goal should be a study of the Oort Cloud as I think it could dramatically help us improve our chances of IDing any 'rogue asteroids hell-bent on destroying us'.

Most of the objects that can threaten Earth come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is right in our back yard, as astronomical distances go. We occasionally get some visitors from the Kuiper Belt, which starts at around Pluto's distance. The Oort Cloud is so much farther away that objects there are unlikely to threaten our planet -- in fact, astronomers aren't 100% sure that it exists.

I thought we had identified a comet a few years ago they thought might have originated in the Oort cloud...? I could very well be wrong about that though.
I've done a little reading about the ion engines but is the cost feasible? I get that ultimately the price is vastly cheaper than what we do now (at least with respect to solid fuel engines...dunno how it compares price-wise with the nuclear option for probes) but is the technology available now or do we essentially need another space race to find the incentive to develop them? Although I do have the feeling that the next iteration of the space race is coming (soonish)with all of the Mars talk in the last several years, SpaceX's accomplishments, etc.

[Jeff V]

I thought we had identified a comet a few years ago they thought might have originated in the Oort cloud...? I could very well be wrong about that though.

Space Facts - Oort Cloud[/url]]The Oort Cloud is an extended shell of icy objects that exist in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It is named after astronomer Jan Oort, who first theorised its existence. The Oort Cloud is roughly spherical, and is thought to be the origin of most of the long-period comets that have been observed.

[Daehawk]

Where no man(made object) has gone before

So the thread is not about colonoscopy?

[Kraken]

An ion-propulsion engine that delivers continuous low thrust could make such a probe feasible, if NASA felt compelled to investigate the Oort Cloud and Congress was willing to wait a century or so for its investment to pay off. IDK how fast an ion-propelled craft could go -- I think it's a respectable fraction of light speed, given enough time -- but it would still take quite a while to get there.

But I agree that a long term goal should be a study of the Oort Cloud as I think it could dramatically help us improve our chances of IDing any 'rogue asteroids hell-bent on destroying us'.

Most of the objects that can threaten Earth come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is right in our back yard, as astronomical distances go. We occasionally get some visitors from the Kuiper Belt, which starts at around Pluto's distance. The Oort Cloud is so much farther away that objects there are unlikely to threaten our planet -- in fact, astronomers aren't 100% sure that it exists.

I thought we had identified a comet a few years ago they thought might have originated in the Oort cloud...? I could very well be wrong about that though.
I've done a little reading about the ion engines but is the cost feasible? I get that ultimately the price is vastly cheaper than what we do now (at least with respect to solid fuel engines...dunno how it compares price-wise with the nuclear option for probes) but is the technology available now or do we essentially need another space race to find the incentive to develop them? Although I do have the feeling that the next iteration of the space race is coming (soonish)with all of the Mars talk in the last several years, SpaceX's accomplishments, etc.

Long-period comets come from somewhere. Most astronomers think that's the Oort Cloud. A small minority believe they're interstellar.

NASA's already using some ion engines in probes, like Dawn. The tech works for small craft that don't have to rush anywhere. All you need is electricity (which can come from solar panels or a nuclear generator) and a substance that ionizes easily. And lots of time to build up acceleration. Ion engines will probably never power crewed spacecraft because humans tend to be in a hurry to get places.

[Unagi]

I’m just relieved this thread wasn’t also about pork butt.

[Isgrimnur]

PRACTICE!

[TheMix]

Someone poke Isg to make sure he hasn't been replaced by a bot!

(Well.... a different bot, that is.)

[raydude]

NASA's already using some ion engines in probes, like Dawn. The tech works for small craft that don't have to rush anywhere. All you need is electricity (which can come from solar panels or a nuclear generator) and a substance that ionizes easily. And lots of time to build up acceleration. Ion engines will probably never power crewed spacecraft because humans tend to be in a hurry to get places.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also uses ion engines in its two asteroid rendezvous missions: Hayabusa and Hayabusa2.

[Isgrimnur]

Someone poke Isg to make sure he hasn't been replaced by a bot!

(Well.... a different bot, that is.)

[Isgrimnur]

SciAm

Astronomers have released the first results from the late 2018 passage of NASA’s Voyager 2 probe into interstellar space, revealing some notable differences to the first crossing made by its sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, in 2012. The data shows that although Voyager 1’s departure was fairly “messy,” the exit of Voyager 2 was much cleaner as it left our sun’s influence on its journey into the galaxy.

Using data from Voyager 2’s Plasma Science Experiment, an instrument that was not working on Voyager 1 during its earlier entry into interstellar space, scientists confirmed that Voyager 2’s exit occurred on November 5, 2018. That was when Voyager 2 registered a sudden decrease in the “solar wind” particles emanating from our sun, along with a concordant increase in the numbers of incoming galactic cosmic rays and the strength of the interstellar magnetic field. Taken together, these data showed the spacecraft had passed beyond a boundary of our sun’s influence known as the heliopause—loosely defined as the point at which interstellar space begins.
...
Although it took Voyager 1 about 28 days to cross the heliopause after leaving the sun’s bubble of influence, known as the heliosphere, it took Voyager 2 less than a day to do so.
...
The passage of the two spacecraft into interstellar space occurred at similar distances from the sun—121.6 AU for Voyager 1 versus 119 AU for Voyager 2
...
But Voyager 1 appears to have been unique in crossing a so-called stagnation region, 8.6 AU across, where the movement of plasma around the spacecraft dropped to almost zero (scientists were able to work this out from other instruments, despite the spacecraft not having a working plasma instrument).
...
By comparison, Voyager 2 did not encounter a region where the plasma stagnates, instead passing through a so-called transition region where the flow of plasma from the sun begins to change in strength and direction, followed by a “boundary layer” where incoming cosmic ray particles increase, and then a clean break through the heliopause.

[coopasonic]

I am not going to understand any of that at anything more than the shallowest level until Kerbal Space Program 2 recreates it.

[Daehawk]

I wonder how long it took the signal to reach Earth from Voy2?

[Isgrimnur]

JPL, Dec 2018

[Daehawk]

So sometime in the future when we get lightspeed we can zip out and grab it in about 20 minutes and 20 min back and put it in a museum...where it belongs

[gameoverman]

So sometime in the future when we get lightspeed we can zip out and grab it in about 20 minutes and 20 min back and put it in a museum...where it belongs

The thought that freaks me out is what if lightspeed isn't the ultimate speed? Right now just leaving the solar system seems like a long trip. With lightspeed, it's nothing. BUT then even with lightspeed it's going to take a long time to get anywhere. What if there was something faster than lightspeed? What if one day a trip to another galaxy was the equivalent of a trip to the moon today? How much bigger is the universe compared to the observable one we know? What if we can one day travel 10 billion light years in the blink of an eye, only to discover we are still hundreds of billions of light years away from anything out in the beyond? The only thing worse than that would be if with that superfast travel we were able to go to the ends of the universe and discovered we could go no further because there was some kind of invisible wall there...the limit of our open world game.

[Isgrimnur]

We'll hit a memory crash or blue screen well before that.

[Daehawk]

Lightspeed is slow.

[Isgrimnur]

No, space is 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's, but that's just peanuts to space.

[Holman]

So sometime in the future when we get lightspeed we can zip out and grab it in about 20 minutes and 20 min back and put it in a museum...where it belongs

The thought that freaks me out is what if lightspeed isn't the ultimate speed? Right now just leaving the solar system seems like a long trip. With lightspeed, it's nothing. BUT then even with lightspeed it's going to take a long time to get anywhere. What if there was something faster than lightspeed? What if one day a trip to another galaxy was the equivalent of a trip to the moon today? How much bigger is the universe compared to the observable one we know? What if we can one day travel 10 billion light years in the blink of an eye, only to discover we are still hundreds of billions of light years away from anything out in the beyond? The only thing worse than that would be if with that superfast travel we were able to go to the ends of the universe and discovered we could go no further because there was some kind of invisible wall there...the limit of our open world game.

[Carl Sagan]
Well, the universe is about 14 billion years old and has been expanding the whole time. However, since the time for expansion has not been infinite, there *really is* an outer limit to it.

[Bong Rip]

[/Carl Sagan]

[Drazzil]

So sometime in the future when we get lightspeed we can zip out and grab it in about 20 minutes and 20 min back and put it in a museum...where it belongs

The thought that freaks me out is what if lightspeed isn't the ultimate speed? Right now just leaving the solar system seems like a long trip. With lightspeed, it's nothing. BUT then even with lightspeed it's going to take a long time to get anywhere. What if there was something faster than lightspeed? What if one day a trip to another galaxy was the equivalent of a trip to the moon today? How much bigger is the universe compared to the observable one we know? What if we can one day travel 10 billion light years in the blink of an eye, only to discover we are still hundreds of billions of light years away from anything out in the beyond? The only thing worse than that would be if with that superfast travel we were able to go to the ends of the universe and discovered we could go no further because there was some kind of invisible wall there...the limit of our open world game.

[Carl Sagan]
Well, the universe is about 14 billion years old and has been expanding the whole time. However, since the time for expansion has not been infinite, there *really is* an outer limit to it.

[Bong Rip]

[/Carl Sagan]

We explore other universes. Interdimentional travel may actually be easier then acheiving FTL.

[Smoove_B]

We explore other universes. Interdimentional travel may actually be easier then acheiving FTL.

If shadows are two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects, what are three dimensional objects shadows of?

[Holman]

We explore other universes. Interdimentional travel may actually be easier then acheiving FTL.

If shadows are two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects, what are three dimensional objects shadows of?

[Bong rip]

[gameoverman]

[Carl Sagan]
Well, the universe is about 14 billion years old and has been expanding the whole time. However, since the time for expansion has not been infinite, there *really is* an outer limit to it.

[Bong Rip]

[/Carl Sagan]

That's just the part we can observe. What has it been expanding into? What compressed it in the first place? We're gonna need a bigger bong.

[Blackhawk]

BUT then even with lightspeed it's going to take a long time to get anywhere. What if there was something faster than lightspeed?

[morlac]

We'll hit a memory crash or blue screen well before that.

Nah, they crank out the DLC's faster than we can fully consume them and hit max level. Endless treadmill, we are playing the Ultimate MMORPG.

[Blackhawk]

Yeah, but they have it rigged so you can't see the endgame. They randomly delete high-level characters, usually sometime after 70. Nobody even knows what the level cap is.

[Holman]

Yeah. You've got to ask whether it's worth it just for the Achievements.

[Kraken]

Well, what are you going to do? Rage-quit?