/sci/ - Science & Math

Voyager probes.

Just thinking about those little probes hurtling through space towards the unknown gives me chills and, quite frankly, makes me damn proud of what our species can achieve when we apply ourselves.

>>6073409
Voyager I recently left the solar system.

Scientists working at universities and NASA were able to determine that the probe had crossed over the barrier (called the bow shock) between the rarer solar plasma and the denser interstellar plasmas.

Despite the original instrument used to measure plasma density being broken many years ago, they were able to use waves in the plasma excited by Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun to work out the densities in the different regions - using the relationship between frequency and electron density in certain plasma waves.

Voyager II should leave the system in a few more years and the New Horizons probe, on its way to Pluto, should catch up with them in another 5-10 years if I remember the numbers right.

Incase you didn't see voyager 1 just hit interstellar space.

Voyager has left the Solar System

http://voyager.gsfc.nasa.gov/heliopause/heliopause/v1la1.html

God speed, fearless toaster...

"Launched in 1977 it is now about 18 billion kilometers from the Sun. It is moving at a speed of about 17 km per second and it currently takes 16 hours and 38 minutes for data to reach NASA's network on Earth."

How has Voyager traveled so far, at such a high speed with delayed communications without hitting any orbital debris or obstacle of any shape or form?


http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/15/us-space-voyager-probe-idINBRE85E0VU20120615

Hello!

I just watched "Life after people" on History channel and at the end of the show they said that Voyager spacecraft will last only 700.000 - million years. They didn't really go into details why.

What I find strange is that I remember reading in Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" that Voyager and golden record on in will last a lot longer. He said it will take 100 million years for Voyager to orbit the Milkyway once. Now, that's if I remember correctly, but I think I do. On the show they said something about "gases in space" and those gases will destroy Voyager. But as far as I know, there not much gasses in vacuum of space.

Opinions? How long will Voyager last?

Whenever I watch a program about the Voyager probes they always mention that billions of years from now when the earth is gone the probes will still be traveling in interstellar space with the golden record. Carrying the record of human civilization etc. They seem to imply that some alien in the future will someday find these things and know of our existence.

Isn't it much more likely, or nearly a 99% probability that it will be destroyed by running into a micro-meteoroid, comet, asteroid etc., and be destroyed.

Or that even if it takes billion of years, that the probe will eventually be captured by a gas giant in the outer solar system of another system somewhere and be obliterated.

There seem to be myriad ways it can be destroyed and almost a 0% chance that it will survive to tell some future being that we were here.

So, have they fixed Voyager yet? Do they even know what the fuck was wrong with it?

Greetings from Earth! I'm V'ger!