technology NASA's Voyager 1 Leaves The Solar System

[Red Diamond 549]

 

Trust me, I'm only interested in the history of Earth, but this is very interesting as well.

 

The scientists from NASA announced that Voyager 1 just exited the Solar System. Now we will be able to see the vast and dark conditions of what's ahead.

 

In space for 36 years, traveled over 11.3 billion miles, it reached this benchmark on August 25th, 2012.

 

Pretty interesting.

[Scootalove 10,689]

That is pretty interesting. I guess it's a good thing that we let the Voyager exit the solar system, so we can discover light years of planets and discover a vast knowledge of scientific planet exploration.

[ShadowRose2k 271]

All well and good untill it encounters ailens and gains selfawareness then  comes back years later to terrorize its creators.

 

Still good to hear we are reaching even further into the vast empty void.

 

"Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..." ~HHGTTG

[Jokuc 8,174]

Cool! I really find the most things about space very interesting (I remember when Feld0 made a topic about going to space with a future elevator (I lol'd even though I know it may be possible in the future)) but I don't think we will receive much more information now than what we did when it was outside the solar system. Well at least not for a very long time.

Edited September 13, 2013 by Jokuc

[Super Derpy 535]

Wow that is a really cool thing. I thought it was still hovering on the fringes. I can't wait to see what else it will discover in years to come.

[GrimCW 658]

 

"Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..." ~HHGTTG

 

And then you get to the end and a giant monkey starts throwing barrels at you.

 

Heh.. could not resist that...

Took the thought from my mind though on V'Ger

[Planty 1,053]

What I find mind boggling is that the average cell phone has more computing power then the original computer on Voyager and yet it is still working after all these years and has done so much with seemingly so little!

[GhostPony750 959]

That's epic!

 

Well, what do we do with this now? Does it take pictures or anything? When will we loose connection with it?

Do we even know if it is still running?

[Red Diamond 549]

That's epic!

 

Well, what do we do with this now? Does it take pictures or anything? When will we loose connection with it?

Do we even know if it is still running?

We will lose connection with it in 10-15 years.

 

It takes pictures, and it sends the pictures to NASA.

 

Here are some photos taken by Voyager 1. This picture of Jupiter was taken on March 1979:

 

Also a picture of Jupiter's moon, Europa. Another spacecraft was sent to see if there was life on there:

 

In case the Voyager encounters with alien life, there are pictures, records, and music in there to tell them about our species.

 

There is another spacecraft, which is Voyager 2, is getting pretty close to the end of the Solar System. Here is the details:

 

 

^This.

 

I find this pretty interesting too... I mean, a lot of people don't see this event's significance.

Whew... 36 years. Finally got out of the Sun's grip. It's power is really going to go down, though. I don't expect it to be working for... another 15 years, perhaps.

 

Don't the Voyagers carry the Golden Records? Or was that another craft?

 

EDIT: Oh well, dang. Ninja'd.

Yes it does.

 

E: This picture was taken in November 1980. This is Mimas, one of the moons of Saturn.

These images were taken in February 1990. Voyager 1 had one last mission to take a picture of all the planets, since the spacecraft was farther than Pluto.

Edited September 14, 2013 by sovereign_

[Iudex 1,945]

All well and good untill it encounters ailens and gains selfawareness then  comes back years later to terrorize its creators.

 

Still good to hear we are reaching even further into the vast empty void.

 

"Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..." ~HHGTTG

^This.

 

I find this pretty interesting too... I mean, a lot of people don't see this event's significance.

Whew... 36 years. Finally got out of the Sun's grip. It's power is really going to go down, though. I don't expect it to be working for... another 15 years, perhaps.

 

Don't the Voyagers carry the Golden Records? Or was that another craft?

 

EDIT: Oh well, dang. Ninja'd.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Windhover

[A Blithering Div 247]

First, here's a link to an AMA with the team staff of voyager on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m9wke/were_scientists_and_engineers_on_nasas_voyager/

 

Second, while this is an awe inspiring moment, we won't get too much out of this spacecraft. Voyager 2 may provide more data but it could be another deacde before it leaves the solar system. The reason for this is that the plasma spectrometer is defective and most likely isn't being used, whereas I'm pretty certain it still works on voyager 2 but I'm not entirely sure so don't quote me on this. That said, it will be interesting to see what data we can pull from the intersteller medium.

 

Interesting tidbit: According to one of the engineers in the AMA, if at 2025 voyager 1 becomes an engineer only mission, we could keep in contact with it until 2036, but all we will get from it is contact, no data, just a "hello world".

[Iudex 1,945]

What I find mind boggling is that the average cell phone has more computing power then the original computer on Voyager and yet it is still working after all these years and has done so much with seemingly so little!

A single, modern phone has more computing power than all of the computational devices used in WWII. Combined. Fascinating, isn't it? How far we've come in such little time?

Edited September 14, 2013 by Windhover

[Smarts 1,623]

That's cool. Now we will learn what mysteries lie beyond the solar system. The universe is riddled with secrets and wonders, and we will discover some of them. Pretty exciting if I do say so myself.

[DubWolf 17,373]

11 billion miles is a long way from here o.O. I wonder what sort of data NASA could acquire from the now out of the solar system space probe. I'm not really sure how useful it could be, but I don't see why not.

 

Unfortunately, the probe won't be sending us signals forever. In about 12 years, its power will have depleted, and it'll just be floating through space forever and ever, lurking through the eternal depths of space...maybe it will find the planet of Equestria some day!