Voyager Exiting the Solar System

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Dr. X will build a planet.
See androids fighting Brad and Janet."

[Coito ergo sum]

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.

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

A momentous occasion for mankind.

If only our (in the US, that is) government would take space exploration more seriously.... if only...

[Atheist-Lite]

...it'd better keep going and jolly well speed up a bit. This world isn't stable or normal. Something very bad is brewing here. I feel it in my bones. There is something very, very wrong with this planet.

[FBM]

It's rhetoric, anyway. The dividing line between this solar system and the rest of reality is fuzzy and just made up. Gravitational and electromagnetic fields, and therefore connections, are, in principle, infinite. While I think the story is cool as shit, the whole "leaving the solar system" thing is a bit of hype, seems to me. It's just going and going and going...

[Coito ergo sum]

It's rhetoric, anyway. The dividing line between this solar system and the rest of reality is fuzzy and just made up. Gravitational and electromagnetic fields, and therefore connections, are, in principle, infinite. While I think the story is cool as shit, the whole "leaving the solar system" thing is a bit of hype, seems to me. It's just going and going and going...

The line is fuzzy, and the article points that out. However, fuzzy lines are still lines. It's an interesting milestone.

[FBM]

I agree. It's an interesting milestone. But still imaginary.

[Coito ergo sum]

I agree. It's an interesting milestone. But still imaginary.

Not imaginary. Fuzzy. The boundary has characteristics that are measurable. It's not like a border on a map, which are imaginary lines. It's more like a mountain range, the extent of which is variable and fuzzy, but it does exist. There is a beginning of a mountain range, but the line is not carved with a razor blade.

[FBM]

Gravitational and electromagnetic fields extend infinitely. Where you draw the line is a matter of convention. There is no real line. There's no real defining end to a mountain range. The soil and rocks are connected to every other part of the tectonic plate(s) no less than any other part. We just make this shit up out of convenience. It's reification. Useful, but imaginary.

[amused]

Not bad for equipment that wasn't originally intended to go this far.

[Animavore]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... lar-system

Nasa's Voyager 1 has entered uncharted territory on the border of our solar system and the remainder of the Milky Way.

Scientists at the US space agency said the craft had gone into a region at the edge of the solar system, describing it as "a kind of cosmic purgatory".

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

The Voyager 1 spacecraft is on course to be the first human-made object to leave the solar system, although Nasa expects it will be several months or even a few years before it completely enters interstellar space. Voyager 2, which is now 9bn miles away from the sun, will follow later.

Voyager 1 is travelling at just under 11 miles a second and sending information back to Earth from nearly 11bn miles away from the sun.

Data obtained from Voyager over the last year reveal that in this area at the edge of the solar system the wind of charged particles streaming out from the sun has calmed, while higher energy particles appear to be leaking out into interstellar space.

The primary mission for both Voyager spacecraft was the exploration of the outer parts of the solar system, particularly the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. They have sent back images of Saturn's rings, Jupiter's red spot and sulphur volcanoes on its moons Europa and Io, and of "winter" on Uranus.

With radio contact with mission control lasting longer than had been expected and both probes still operating well, their mission was extended to chart the edge of the solar system and beyond.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What were the estimated chances V-ger would make it out of the solar system without mortal damage? Anybody ever see those numbers?