Voyager probe 'leaves Solar System'

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13-09-2013, 07:19 PM
xxMATTGxx

Voyager probe 'leaves Solar System'

I thought this was rather cool and interesting and may as well share it with anyone who hasn't read about it yet.

Quote:

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...ecraft-spl.jpg

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.

This distance is so vast that it takes 17 hours now for a radio signal sent from Voyager to reach receivers here on Earth.

"This is really a key milestone that we'd been hoping we would reach when we started this project over 40 years ago - that we would get a spacecraft into interstellar space," said Prof Ed Stone, the chief scientist on the venture.

"Scientifically it's a major milestone, but also historically - this is one of those journeys of exploration like circumnavigating the globe for the first time or having a footprint on the Moon for the first time. This is the first time we've begun to explore the space between the stars," he told BBC News.

Sensors on Voyager had been indicating for some time that its local environment had changed.

The data that finally convinced the mission team to call the jump to interstellar space came from the probe's Plasma Wave Science (PWS) instrument. This can measure the density of charged particles in Voyager's vicinity.

Readings taken in April/May this year and October/November last year revealed a near-100-fold jump in the number of protons occupying every cubic metre of space.

Read the full story by going to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24026153
13-09-2013, 07:36 PM
lawrawrrr

i thought this was SO COOL and so many people don't even like understand why it's so cool but omg
13-09-2013, 07:38 PM
lemons

12 billion miles wow
13-09-2013, 08:11 PM
Chippiewill

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zitrone

12 billion miles wow

10 digits on the odometer.
13-09-2013, 08:35 PM
Cerys

that is actually beautiful

*that is the actual pic isnt it? lmfaoo*
13-09-2013, 08:37 PM
dbgtz

Hopefully this doesn't crash into another planet causing the people to declare intergalactic war on us.
13-09-2013, 09:23 PM
MilksAreUs

Apparently, as hitting another planet beyond the solar system, it recorded a wierd shrieking noise:o
13-09-2013, 11:54 PM
lawrawrrr

http://i.imgur.com/XWSLcHG.jpg
This is Voyager 1, launched in 1977

http://i.imgur.com/l9za4Jw.jpg
It's main mission was to perform a flyby both Jupiter and Saturn, taking high resolution pictures of both planets and their moons and sending them back to Earth.

http://i.imgur.com/adwfdWG.jpg
It was also responsible for this picture, famously entitled "The Pale Blue Dot". A picture of our own planet Earth as a lonely spec of pale light.

http://i.imgur.com/gvF9zff.jpg

It was confirmed today that Voyager has now succeeded in being the first man-made object to have entered the realm of what we call Interstellar Space, and continues to travel away from us at 17 km per second at this very moment.

http://i.imgur.com/WolvYbX.gif

However, attached on the side of Voyager is a very odd-looking disk.

http://i.imgur.com/1bzQeKs.jpg
On this disk can be found a very peculiar collection of scribbles and symbols. No words or written language of human dialect can be found here, for they are not meant for humans.

http://i.imgur.com/KyDOBse.jpg
Inside the disk can be found a golden record. On it, a vast collection of audio sounds, songs, languages, and pictures of our home, of our planet. Earth.

http://i.imgur.com/ZODCINl.jpg
The golden record was a project created by Dr. Carl Sagan. After the Pioneer Missions, NASA and Carl felt the need to attach a type of "Time Capsule" to both Voyager and Voyager II.

http://i.imgur.com/oNmhXAU.jpg
The collection of scribbles and symbols can be read using the universal cosmic language of any advanced civilization. Mathematics. After discovering how to read the information, the information from the golden record can then be extracted.

http://i.imgur.com/5SGzM9M.jpg
Music from Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar

http://i.imgur.com/GQt44px.png
Mozart

http://i.imgur.com/7sPomr7.jpg
Goro Yamaguchi

http://i.imgur.com/pwv5HJs.jpg
And even Chuck Berry can be found on the record.

http://i.imgur.com/X33BB9j.gif
Also included are digitized photographs, 116 in all, including pictures of planets like Jupiter.

http://i.imgur.com/wTrsoJ9.jpg
Earthly landscapes of Snake River and Grand Tetons

http://i.imgur.com/NvN7kT3.gif
Examples of food consumption

http://i.imgur.com/ZWmMhmQ.gif
Of instruments and sheet music

http://i.imgur.com/LZJZabE.gif
And even a picture of a page from Issac Newton's System of the World.

http://i.imgur.com/lk7bbPy.png
Carl knew the importance of creating such a record. Putting the memories and works of mankind onto Voyager in hopes that someone, somewhere, would later find it. That they would learn about a small fragile planet called Earth. That there exists creatures with creativity and intelligence. Creatures with intrest in the cosmos.

http://i.imgur.com/CaQyWiD.jpg
We have tossed a message in the bottle into a vast cosmic ocean. Perhaps we will later overtake Voyager with the new technology of tomorrow. Perhaps we will never again find the lonely spacecraft as it drifts further into interstellar space... Regardless, it matters little. What matters is that we humans have sent a message of yearning; A yearning to be apart of something bigger than ourselves. We have voiced our desire with this record. We wish to become citizens of the cosmos...
14-09-2013, 01:00 AM
-:Undertaker:-

I have to say that while it's interesting, I do hope that creatures in outer-space never find it - who afterall said little green men are friendly?
14-09-2013, 05:37 AM
karter

Did it capture Pluto? because it hasn't been photographed yet, unless you consider dots of lights as photographs of planets
14-09-2013, 09:43 AM
FlyingJesus

Love that picture of food consumption, sums up my eating habits and table manners perfectly
14-09-2013, 03:22 PM
Inseriousity.

as long as we didn't send any blood samples over, don't want the Sycorax here!
14-09-2013, 03:31 PM
Ardemax

Quote:

Originally Posted by -:Undertaker:-

I have to say that while it's interesting, I do hope that creatures in outer-space never find it - who afterall said little green men are friendly?

I wouldn't worry, it's not like anything would happen in our lifetimes.

I find this incredibly fascinating that such a small and insignificant planet like ours is actively trying to find out the secrets of space. Imagine if we were sent something back... :D
14-09-2013, 03:33 PM
-:Undertaker:-

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ardemax

I wouldn't worry, it's not like anything would happen in our lifetimes.

I find this incredibly fascinating that such a small and insignificant planet like ours is actively trying to find out the secrets of space. Imagine if we were sent something back... :D

Would be incredibly dangerous, even taking back just bacteria lifeforms for study - we know how deadly certain viruses and bacteria on Earth are and how given the right circumstances they can completely take over, imagine the danger in introducing a bacteria that has never been here/has no relation to the evolution of earth.
14-09-2013, 04:56 PM
FlyingJesus

http://www.laddmcintosh.com/i//Evolution.jpg

Edited by Dilusionate (Forum Moderator): Please do not post pointlessly, thanks!