Comments on: Space probe Voyager 1 reaches outer edges of solar system

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 20:08:00 +0000

Something something hot flashes, sun joke.

By: JhmL

JhmL — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:36:00 +0000

http://xkcd.com/1189/

By: Scott Bartlett

Scott Bartlett — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:32:00 +0000

Oh okay, cool, thanks!

By: garyg2

garyg2 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:22:00 +0000

Exactly, it says on the page that the earth moves faster around the sun than voyager is travelling so at certain times of the year we’ll be catching her up. Assuming space probes are gendered like ships. :)

By: Chris Palmer

Chris Palmer — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:16:00 +0000

I wonder if the distance from the earth is decreasing because the earth is moving in its orbit around the sun. The distance from the sun continues to increase.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:38:00 +0000

Its not exactly the starship enterprise. Its going to take time to fully leave the solar system. Also I get the impression that the boundaries of the solar system are fuzzy and continually changing.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:17:00 +0000

Well, I can’t see it.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:47:00 +0000

Pretty dang amazing that we can still communicate with a relatively small, low-powered, 35-year-old device that’s about ten light-hours away.

By: toobigtofail

toobigtofail — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:44:00 +0000

OK – “heliopause” was a new one on me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopause_%28astronomy%29#Heliopause

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:38:00 +0000

They said “hasn’t definitively left yet,” not “hasn’t reached the outer edges.”

By: Aaron Riley

Aaron Riley — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:36:00 +0000

Voyager’s power will finally run out around 2025. They can keep up communications until then.

By: Graceless

Graceless — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Don’t worry, we haven’t launched V’ger yet. That’s the Voyager 6 probe! :)

By: Benjamin Young

Benjamin Young — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:41:00 +0000

Nasa says nope: the voyager team’s consensus is that the probe has NOT yet left the solar system. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20130320.html

By: garyg2

garyg2 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:20:00 +0000

I did read one definition of the solar system that argued gravitational influence should be taken into consideration which would mean the Voyagers would need to clear the Oort Cloud before being considered outside (not a scientist so don’t know how reasonable this statement is :))

Bearing in mind the Oort cloud is a light year away, stories could keep on coming for a while yet… :)

By: garyg2

garyg2 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:16:00 +0000

Yep, 11 billion miles from Earth and actually getting closer…

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/index.html

;)

By: Martijn

Martijn — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:20:00 +0000

For just how long has Voyager been on the verge of leaving the solar system now? I remember hearing about this story for decades.

By: TheKaz1969

TheKaz1969 — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:04:00 +0000

I hope they take care of our V’ger

By: joe blough

joe blough — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:51:00 +0000

a sobering thing to do is load the exoplanet app on your iphone and check out where the two voyagers are (and the two pioneer spacecraft) relative to the sun. we haven’t really gone anywhere – these two probes are about an inch away from the front door. the edge of the porch is an eternity away.

By: Scott Bartlett

Scott Bartlett — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:39:00 +0000

How long will we be able to continue communicating with the probe?

By: Grant Young

Grant Young — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:22:00 +0000

I think the Voyagers are likely to be our civilization’s messengers to the future. When we’re all gone they’ll be traveling through space. The plaques and records on them might be the only evidence humanity ever existed.