Voyager 1 Leaves Solar System

[Fred Garvin]

Nasa confirmed yesterday that Voyager 1 has left the solar system and is heading out to deep space.

CNN Voyager Story

 

[Cyril's Scribe]

Check This Out

But seriously, this is the first time that NASA has actually said that Voyager has left the solar system, they did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit and confirmed. Usually someone else said it had left, but there was no confirmation from official outlets.

 

[Odo]

:y::y:
Woo!
Congratz NASA!

 

[gdiscenza]

"Are we there yet?"

G.D.

 

[goldlizard]

How will we know where it is if it is shut down?

 

[Odo]

Im just kind of scared it will come back as an all consuming gas cloud that calls itself "V'ger"

 

[Cyril's Scribe]

How will we know where it is if it is shut down?

They know where it is now, and it is on a very well defined trajectory with basically nothing to change its course. So they can comfortably say where it will be for the next 40,000 years or so with extremely high accuracy until it hits the next opportunity for major deviation (gravity well of Ross' Star, a minor red dwarf). Also their optimistic calculations show them getting some data back until the late 2030s-2040s.

 

[Fred Garvin]

My hope is that it won't make it that far....a 40,000 year trip.....I hope that within a few hundred years we'll go get it.

 

[bavspaceprogram]

Wow. Amazing.

 

[jflis]

How will we know where it is if it is shut down?

My understanding is that it is not "shut down" just running a limited number of instruments and is still in contact with the team. I've read that they expect the batteries to be totally dead around 2020 to 2025

 

[krusty]

My hope is that it won't make it that far....a 40,000 year trip.....I hope that within a few hundred years we'll go get it.

I think even if one day we possess the technology to chase it down and catch it, we shouldn't. I think that it's a wonderful bit of Earth sent on a voyage and it should be left to continue. Perhaps ultimately as a symbol of our spirit of exploration.

Oh, and just thinking of how far away it is, how fast it's going and how much further it has to go before it bumps into something else makes my brain tingle

Krusty

 

[Fred Garvin]

I think even if one day we possess the technology to chase it down and catch it, we shouldn't. I think that it's a wonderful bit of Earth sent on a voyage and it should be left to continue. Perhaps ultimately as a symbol of our spirit of exploration.

Oh, and just thinking of how far away it is, how fast it's going and how much further it has to go before it bumps into something else makes my brain tingle

Krusty

"Attention passengers, out the left side of the spacecraft we'll be slowing down to view Voyager 1, an ancient space probe launched at the very beginning of the transition to a spacefaring race. This primitive device has been traveling for hundreds of years........"

 

[boomtube]

I hope it remembered to turn off the back porch light before it left.

 

[troj]

My understanding is that it is not "shut down" just running a limited number of instruments and is still in contact with the team. I've read that they expect the batteries to be totally dead around 2020 to 2025

Yep. Most of the instruments have been shut down for years. Those which still provide value are still running