Voyager 1 on verge of entering Milky Way

[Anakha56]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/spac ... y-Way.html

Nasa's Voyager 1 in 'cosmic purgatory' on verge of entering Milky Way

Nasa's Voyager 1 has entered a new region of space between the Solar System and interstellar space in what Nasa has described as a 'cosmic purgatory'.

The spacecraft is close to leaving the Solar System and into the uncharted territory of the Milky Way after more than three decades in space.

Voyager 1 was launched with its twin, Voyager 2, by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) in 1977.

Voyager 1 is travelling at just under 11 miles per second and sending information from nearly 11 billion miles away from the sun.

It is about to become the first man-made object to leave the Solar System, although Nasa expects it to take between several months and years before it completely enters interstellar space. Voyager 2 will follow later.

Ed Stone, the Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said: "Voyager tells us now that we're in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system. Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back.

"We shouldn't have long to wait to find out what the space between stars is really like."

The primary mission for the spacecrafts was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn.

After uncovering important findings the mission was extended, with the radio contact with mission control lasting longer than had been expected.

Rob Decker, a Voyager Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument co-investigator from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said: "We've been using the flow of energetic charged particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to estimate the solar wind velocity. We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically. For the first time, the wind even blows back at us. We are evidently traveling in completely new territory. Scientists had suggested previously that there might be a stagnation layer, but we weren't sure it existed until now."

Voyager 1 and 2 both hold a a gold-coated copper phonograph record.

The record contains over 100 photographs of earth, a selection of greetings from languages around the world and a variety of sounds from the Earth.

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan wrote in an introduction to a CD version of the record that "billion years from now, when everything on Earth we've ever made has crumbled into dust, when the continents have changed beyond recognition and our species is unimaginably altered or extinct, the Voyager record will speak for us."

The Voyagers have enough power and fuel to operate until at least 2020.

It is predicted by that point that Voyager 1 will be 12.4 billion miles from the Sun, whilst Voyager 2 will be 10.5 billion miles away.

Awesome news. Surprised they are still going and not been hit by U.F.O ...

[IcePick88]

That is amazing!

11 miles per second! That is 17.6km/s! I cannot even try and comprehend how fast that is!

[KALSTER]

63 360km/h. Not too shabby.

I love the idea of this, especially the gold-coated phonograph plate both Voyager 1 and 2 are carrying. I can scarcely imagine my excitement at discovering something similar from another planet.

[StarBound]

63 360km/h. Not too shabby.

I'd hate to be at the end of a speeding ticket with that number

2020 isn't far off. It took 3 decades to reach that distance. So is the craft still accelerating or is it at a constant speed? As excited as I am I can't see us seeing what lies beyond our borders in my lifetime atleast.

[KALSTER]

As far as I know, it has long since expended all its thrust fuel, but has some orientation propellant left for aligning with earth. If I am not mistaken, it will have been slowing down for quite some time due to the gravity of the solar system, but it's velocity is more than the escape velocity of the solar system. So, in theory, it will be slowing down until it enters a region where another gravity field is greater, like that of another star. .

[Anakha56]

@Kalster a tad off topic question but its something that stuck with me as a kid and I just want some clarification.

I was told that if set a object in motion in space it will (this is where memory gets blurry) either carry on accelerating or carry on at the same speed. Obviously if you throw in planets gravity it will cause it to slow down but what if there was no planet or star in the vicinity? Will it carry on gathering speed or carry on at the same speed?

---

Article does say they have enough fuel and power up until 2020...

[KALSTER]

Newton's First law of motion: "The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force"

That means that it will accelerate for as long as a resultant (net) force is applied to the object, i.e. in this case by your hand. Once it leaves your hand though, no further resultant force is applied and it continues at constant velocity (at the same speed, in a straight line), until another resultant force acts on it.

Article does say they have enough fuel and power up until 2020

I think that is manoeuvring fuel, not for propulsion. I might be mistaken though...

[Anakha56]

Thought so but it does not help to ask . Plus these childhood memories could end up biting you if you dont get them checked out .

[StarPhoenix]

Maybe I'm being anal, but wasn't Voyager already a part of the Milky Way Galaxy when it was contructed?

[KALSTER]

There are no dumb questions.

[StarBound]

I was also under the impression we were part of the Milky Way And if not the name for it in SA is Bar One. Still had one when I was in America those years back

What are the effects of solar winds on the thing? Even if they added some kind of solar charging panel the battary rundown over 30 years should already have been reached and as far as the sun is from it it is highly unlikely that it is getting any energy from it. Is the thing traveling in a straight line or has it been set to spiral to reach those other planets rotating around our sun?

So many questions, so little answers. And let's take that other thing that Pluto is now reclassified as a planetoid and that there is another planet beyond its cycle, has it been passed then?

[Anakha56]

@Starbound I dont think we had solar panel tech back then? Also if it is getting buffeted by other solar winds then surely other stars would be able to charge it when it came into range to accept the light?

[KALSTER]

It has instruments for taking measurements of charged particles (like the solar wind) and these measurements are one of the interesting things about it leaving the heliosheath. While still in the solar system, solar wind was coming from behind, i.e. from the sun, but as it is leaving, it is increasingly picking up charged particle flying all over, even from ahead, so much so that they might be applying pressure on the solar system domain.

I am not sure if it has solar panels for other processes, but the reason it has been able to operate for this long, is because it has a plutonium thermonuclear reactor on board. It is the plutonium fuel that will be running out by 2020 or 2025.

It is travelling at constant velocity (well, slightly decelerating), i.e. at a constant speed and in a straight line and leaving the solar system. The nearest star from us is more than 4 light years away, but it is not pointing in that direction anyway.

[RiaX]

It has our location in the milky way ... if hostile aliens come its going to be their fault

[CapNemo]

Ok no time to read everything but our solar system is part of the milkyway galaxy so it was in the milkyway when it started so how can you enter it if you never left

[StarBound]

In America you don't enter a milkyway, a milkyway enters you.