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<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/12/voyager-1-leaves-solar-system">http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013 ... lar-system</a><!-- m -->
I had to post this - it's really an achievement in space travel, even though it's an unmanned probe......
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Awesome news. I hope that Seven of Nine doesn't try to assimilate it.
Mike Kieran
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She can assimilate me!
Tom
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Quite an article. I read a very short note in the paper that it made it that far and that was it. Can you imagine trying to communicate with something that far away? Trying to pick up such a small signal trying to get through all the background noise in the universe has to be daunting, especially using 1970 technology at one end, Avoiding hitting any of that space debris has to be tricky as well. And they're looking at another 12 years to still communicate with it.
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10 BILLION miles away. WOW. I cannot even fathom how far that really is, it took over 30 years to get there. They know it made interstellar space by the content of the "nothingness" it is flying through. So... how fast is it going? And since there is no resistance from any atmospheres etc. I imagine that, in theory, it will keep going into perpetuity until it is either a.) intercepted by a life form or b.) hits something? I also am amazed that 1970 technology is still communicating over 10 billion miles. Is it the lack of weather that preserves the equipment so long? Kind of like the footprints and rover on the moon? One more question, they say that when you look at the night sky you are actually seeing the past. Light can only travel at 299,792,458 meters per second, so when you see something happen in the sky, you are seeing something that already happened, how long ago it happened depends on how far away the object is from the earth. Does this go for the Voyager probe as well? In other words, how long does the signal take to get from the probe to the earth? We just recently learned that Voyager made interstellar space, but how long ago did it actually happen?
Using light speed as an example I calculated over 14 hours travel time from the probe to earth, don't know how long a radio signal would take, but that is a lot faster than I thought. 10 BILLION miles, I figured it would take much longer for light to travel that far.
-Dave
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Puddlejumper - your questions border more on philosophy than science. Time is relative and not absolute, and the definition of "now" is also relative, and mostly useless when dealing on the scales of solar systems or universes. If you are asking when the probe actually left the solar system relative to the Earth's time and calendar, yes it was some time in the past that it actually happened - but that really is irrelevant because the universe does not beat to the same time clock as earth. It's like the tree falling in the woods.
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Puddlejumper Wrote:10 BILLION miles away. WOW. I cannot even fathom how far that really is, it took over 30 years to get there. They know it made interstellar space by the content of the "nothingness" it is flying through. So... how fast is it going? And since there is no resistance from any atmospheres etc. I imagine that, in theory, it will keep going into perpetuity until it is either a.) intercepted by a life form or b.) hits something?
The article says it's 11.6 Million miles away and traveling at 11 Miles Per Second 
Puddlejumper Wrote:I also am amazed that 1970 technology is still communicating over 10 billion miles. Is it the lack of weather that preserves the equipment so long?
It has a tiny nuclear reactor inside - it's supposed to run out of power around 2025, but yeah - the lack of weather definitely has a lot to do with it's speed... It has no resistance... unless something (or someone) else reacts to it or as you say it gets caught in a gravity field of a planet or star and crashes.
Puddlejumper Wrote:Kind of like the footprints and rover on the moon? One more question, they say that when you look at the night sky you are actually seeing the past. Light can only travel at 299,792,458 meters per second, so when you see something happen in the sky, you are seeing something that already happened, how long ago it happened depends on how far away the object is from the earth. Does this go for the Voyager probe as well? In other words, how long does the signal take to get from the probe to the earth? We just recently learned that Voyager made interstellar space, but how long ago did it actually happen? It happened last august, but since it was something scientists never experienced there were disagreements as to how to "Prove" it... Now - most of the scientific community agree.. it's in interstellar space...
The function of light is the same - yes, if you could see Voyager - it would be something that happened 14 hours ago... This is what made it so difficult to communicate with the Mars rovers.. You send a command, a few hours later - the rover acknowledges it - executes it - reports it and a few hours later you see if you were correct or not 
Puddlejumper Wrote:Using light speed as an example I calculated over 14 hours travel time from the probe to earth, don't know how long a radio signal would take, but that is a lot faster than I thought. 10 BILLION miles, I figured it would take much longer for light to travel that far.
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[quote="ngauger[/quote]
It has a tiny nuclear reactor inside - it's supposed to run out of power around 2025, but yeah - the lack of weather definitely has a lot to do with it's speed... It has no resistance... unless something (or someone) else reacts to it or as you say it gets caught in a gravity field of a planet or star and crashes.
The probability of it running into something is infinitely small, other than a stray comet popping out of the Oort Cloud, the closest star is Proxima Centauri which, at the speed it is travelling at, would take about 80,000 years to reach...
Gus (LC&P).
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nachoman Wrote:Puddlejumper - your questions border more on philosophy than science. Time is relative and not absolute, and the definition of "now" is also relative, and mostly useless when dealing on the scales of solar systems or universes. If you are asking when the probe actually left the solar system relative to the Earth's time and calendar, yes it was some time in the past that it actually happened - but that really is irrelevant because the universe does not beat to the same time clock as earth. It's like the tree falling in the woods.
However, we humans use the same clock Voyager does, so the issue is relevant...and the answer is YES - if a tree falls in the woods with no one round, it still makes noise. Sound waves are sound waves, receiver or not.
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Steamtrains Wrote:The probability of it running into something is infinitely small, other than a stray comet popping out of the Oort Cloud, the closest star is Proxima Centauri which, at the speed it is travelling at, would take about 80,000 years to reach...
Are you saying that, at it's current speed of 11 miles per second, at which it took 30 years to go 11 Billion miles, it will take 80,000 years to reach the next nearest star? That is over 30,000,000,000,000,000 (30 to the 15th power) miles away. HOLY CRAP.
Space is so interesting and, to me anyway, so complex I can't begin to understand it. But it is interesting to try.
DAve
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Puddlejumper Wrote:Steamtrains Wrote:The probability of it running into something is infinitely small, other than a stray comet popping out of the Oort Cloud, the closest star is Proxima Centauri which, at the speed it is travelling at, would take about 80,000 years to reach...
Are you saying that, at it's current speed of 11 miles per second, at which it took 30 years to go 11 Billion miles[/u][/i][/b], it will take 80,000 years to reach the next nearest star? That is over 30,000,000,000,000,000 (30 to the 15th power) miles away. HOLY CRAP.
Space is so interesting and, to me anyway, so complex I can't begin to understand it. But it is interesting to try.
DAve
To repeat...The article says 11.6 MILLION miles. A billion is a thousand millions....
Gus (LC&P).
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This news yesterday. yawn
Andy Jackson
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Yeah, I know what you mean Andy. This star system is soooooooooooooooo last millenium. I only come back here once in awhile just to visit some friends and family then BAM, I'm soooooooooooo outta here again! 
Mike
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Steamtrains Wrote:To repeat...The article says 11.6 MILLION miles. A billion is a thousand millions....
Yeah, I noticed the correction and then googled it.
NASA Wrote:PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun.
From <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20130912.html">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyag ... 30912.html</a><!-- m -->
Either way, it is way farther than I can imagine, one much farther than the other...
-Dave
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