Outward bound at 38,160 MPH, this relic of the seventies is still making history. Currently located ~11 billion miles from our star and based on the data, seems to be exiting the heliosheath and the protection of the solar winds. We learned much of the outer planets from V-I and V-II but the story does not stop there. Even hampered by lengthy communications gap with the probe which currently take 33.23 hours round trip (no video as we lost that ~20 years ago) and will only increase. We are about to experience the full effects of interstellar space for the first time ever on a manmade vehicle. But don’t expect miracles or ET, at this stupendous speed it will take another 40 thousand years before they approach the nearest star to earth, just one of over 100 billion stars in our own mediocre galaxy alone. We are going to have to learn how to ‘bend’ something I think or humanity will just expire of old age. Well, we have another 13 years before the plutonium fuel cell runs dry when it will become a memorial hurtling through the 'emptiness' of space. No matter what foolishness we do on this planet, we will have left a couple of markers to let whomsoever becomes interested that there was once a species they called humanity. I thought the analogy with the sink was great too.
NASA: Voyager 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Q-sA1pBe8
I doubt it's "entering" the Milky Way .....it's been in it since manufacture....as we are....
I see in a matter of time a mile long ship will appear over Cape Canaveral, and a beam will come down with the Voyager I craft in the middle of it and land on the tarmac and a transmission will come from the ship and it will say, "Damn kids, keep your toys off my freakin lawn."
This link shows an odometer in real time. Distance from the Earth and the Sun in kilometers and AU's (astronomical units). Thirty five years from launch to exiting the solar system and finding all kinds of what one astronomer called 'weirdness'. Not too shabby considering the level of technology at the time. From computers that took up whole rooms and ran at turtle speeds to ones you carry in your pocket.
Link: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/index.html
OMG!!! What happens if it punctures and breaks the bubble!
Ooops!!!
*Pop*
Yep! Probably happen on December 21st too!
PS - Is there a way to remove some posts from ones ‘My Replies’ list to prevent them from popping up to the head of the line?
Voyager series rocked pretty hard core and still do. People fail to realize often just how many craft we have zooming about our solar system, or orbiting the sun, or different planets, the list goes on and on. In any case, I want a moon base. Once the infrastructure is there, it suddenly becomes much more economical for orbital industry to occur. I hope that we get there ... before we blow ourselves up.
I usually do. Been keeping up on the Voyager's voyage (pun intended) since they were launched in '77. The pics they sent back fron Uranus and Neptune are still the only ones of both gas giants and the Voyagers being the only probes ever to reach them. We should get some good ones from New Horizons on its way out to Pluto. Last report said New Horizons was somewhere between Jupiter and Saturn. Wonder what they'll do now that Pluto has five satellites orbiting. Only planets are thought to have satellites. Think they'll re-re-classify Pluto.
Scientists can't even decide if eggs are good for me, or bad for me. I wouldn't trust them with the decision over whether a body in space was a planet or not.
Good for you in moderation. Excellent surce of protein. People been scuffin' 'em up for a bazillion years now. As for a planet...well......maybe....with some ketchup. lol
I first heard about New Horizons when it was in the oncept stage. When I saw a report saying it was given the go ahead I was exsctatic! Best Hubble view shows Pluto as a glowing disk but check this out. There is actually a very good pic of Pluto. Tentative IMO but it suggests some surface details. I guess two more years waiting isn't too bad though.
I can live with ‘dwarf planet’ which seems to be where we are now.
Hubble's Pictures of Pluto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGemyHnPTHQ
One for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmJeE_33R5E&feature=endscreen&NR=1
How much you want to bet that pluto has life?
Yes, once you remember Earth's part of the same galaxy called 'The Milky Way' then you know nothing we can do can 'enter it'.....only 'leave'. [unless we leave first].
And, No ...the only way I expect that can happen is if you are able to delete your posts [which I can do - but only when appropriate/required]...
Ooops, I think you mean galaxy named "The Milky Way."
That would be a "Galaxy" not a "Solar System"
+4 to Leo for going there first.
I'd already corrected it...if you'd refreshed you would have noticed.
There weren't any responses prior to the correction....
I fully expect that soon Voyager will mysteriously stop transmitting, and baffled, we will search in vain for it, only for a signal arrive years later signaling it is in a nearby star system, thus proving that outside the star system's bubble there is hyperspace everywhere and FTL is not only possible but mandatory.
I'm waiting for photobucket. Page loading is so slow over here.
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