Voyager heading out

[Rico]

So, V'Ger should be heading back to us soon....

The Nasa space probe was launched in 1977 and passed by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before veering north.

It is now 10.8 billion miles from the sun travelling at a speed of 38,000 mph.

The solar wind, a stream of charged particles spewing from the sun, has slowed to a speed of zero and is moving sideways rather than outwards, marking the end of the solar system.

Nasa said the 722kg probe would take another four years to fully exit the solar system and enter interstellar space, the area between the influence of the sun and the next star system. The space agency described it as a "major milestone" in space exploration.

Its scientists first noticed changes in the solar wind around Voyager 1 in June but needed months of readings to confirm it.

The results were presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Rob Decker, a senior scientist at Johns Hopkins University, said: "When I realised that we were getting solid zeros I was amazed. Here is Voyager, a spacecraft that has been a work horse for 33 years, showing us something completely new again."

The nuclear-powered craft is so far away that information from its instruments takes 16 hours to get back to Earth.

It was launched with a twin, Voyager 2, which is proceeding at a slower speed and is 8.8 billion miles from the Sun.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8201280/Voyager-1-reaches-edge-of-solar-system.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/1214/Voyager-1-spacecraft-entering-heliopause-leaving-solar-wind-behind

[Geekyfanboy]

Love news like this.. so interesting.

[billybob476]

I actually forgot the Voyager probes were still out there. I thought we had lost contact with them. This is awesome!

[Bryancd]

I read that this morning on JPL's site!

[Feathers]

They had a few communication problems with one of them but they're both still ploughing along out there.

[Bromptonboy]

I wonder what the escape velocity is for the solar system?

[moyer777]

MW passed them on his way to the Milky Way....