Posted on 12/03/2012 5:31:45 PM PST by John W
LOS ANGELES — The unstoppable Voyager 1 spacecraft has sailed into a new realm of the solar system that scientists did not know existed.
Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, have been speeding away from the sun toward interstellar space, or the space between stars.
Over the summer, Voyager 1, which is farther along in its journey, crossed into this new region where the effects from the outside can be felt.
“We do believe this may be the very last layer between us and interstellar space,” said chief scientist Ed Stone of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the spacecraft.
Stone presented Voyager 1’s latest location at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Scientists were surprised to discover the unexpected region at the fringes of the solar system — a testament to the mysteries of space.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone
VIGER rules!
I miss Persis Kambatta.
It must be very cool up there.
Mayhap it will outlast its originators.
I think it's gonna be a long, long time...
35 years and we are just now on the verge of interstellar space.
“They have dubbed this new zone a kind of “magnetic highway.””
Interesting - some sort of “edge effect” with the EM fields I suppose. Cool stuff.
Got me to thinking how much has changed since when they were launched in 1977:
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 831
Average Cost of new house $49,300.00
Average Income per year $15,000.00
Average Monthly Rent $240.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 65 cents
The Apple II computer came out in 1977.
Also was the year the World Trade Center was completed.
(Hmm - I got to watch the Bi-Centennial celebrations from the 60th floor as a kid in 1976. I guess they were still touching things up).
Vger was the first thing I thought of when I saw the article.
I recently saw that movie again and everyone is right. It was a bad movie.
Persis Kambatta really was pretty, even bald. What ever happened to her?
We’re capable of building considerably faster propulsion now. New Horizons could have catching up if the planets had been in the right positions for a gravitational slingshot. As it is its almost 25 AU from the sun now.
Sitting up here watching all the lights blink down below... the earth is turning, why does it go so slow...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT-K5hQl834
She’s dead, Jim.
I think we should find a way to retrieve one of the Voyagers. Would be cool to see it in a museum knowing it had been to the edge of interstellar space.
Is that something! I’m thinking Ray Bradbury would be there with it at the edge.
Will Voyager leave the Solar system completely or Obama leave the Constitution completely first? The race is on!
In 1998, Khambatta was taken to the Marine Hospital in south Mumbai, complaining of chest pains. She died of a heart attack on 18 August 1998 at the age of 49.
I had no idea she was Indian. I always thought she was Persian.
Would that be possible? I was going to ask in all seriousness - does this mean the craft has traveled back in time?
I hear it's a white picket fence.
V*Ger will return on its own. I saw it on TV
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