Voyager 1 detects unpredicted new realm at edge of Solar System: Magnetic Highway

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


This is great, I was reading about it somewhere else, but the ATS discussion on science topics is always interesting because of the knowledge, as well as the sheer level of intrigeuiness (take that, Colbert!) of the members here. I don't have much to add, more of an aborb and contemplate topic for me, but I'll say this:

This is yet another, and one of the biggest in awhile, slap in the face to the "NASA is a waste of money" crowd. Those who believe that, should be fined, with the funds donated to NASA.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


awe man that sux 8o(
what kind of power source are they using,

i thought

newtons
1.First law: If an object experiences no net force, then its velocity is constant: the object is either at rest (if its velocity is zero), or it moves in a straight line with constant speed (if its velocity is nonzero).[2][3][4]
2.Second law: The acceleration a of a body is parallel and directly proportional to the net force F acting on the body, is in the direction of the net force, and is inversely proportional to the mass m of the body, i.e., F = ma.
3.Third law: When a first body exerts a force F1 on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force F2 = −F1 on the first body. This means that F1 and F2 are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction

shouldnt they be able to fly for ever once in space? should be able to have like a billion cameras on that thing, and just use extra power for that, unless they are steering it all over the place doing looped de loops ^^ or another science lie ^9

reply to post by ~widowmaker~


Voyager 1 is being powered by three large radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) mounted end to end on a boom. Each one contains 24 pressed plutonium-238 oxide spheres.

The power output of the RTGs does decline over time (halving every 87.7 yrs), but the RTGs of Voyager 1 will continue to support some of its operations until around 2025.

I'm not sure but I think it only uses its power to run all the instruments on board and for its initial launch.

A barrier/volatility on the edge of the solar system? Possibly more exciting for me than the thought of interstellar space - maybe there's a sense of truth in "the Truman show"
(lol - 'Truman' is capitalized in pradictive text on my phone)


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by ArchaicDesigns


wow guess they use alot of juice then. well then um i WANT A BIGGER ONE!!!!!!

^ ^

I understand how the magnetic thing works in theory. But someone, please explan to me the first picture in this articele: www.space.com...

I just don't see the measurments there xD

Originally posted by ArchaicDesigns
reply to post by ~widowmaker~

 

Voyager 1 is being powered by three large radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) mounted end to end on a boom. Each one contains 24 pressed plutonium-238 oxide spheres.

The power output of the RTGs does decline over time (halving every 87.7 yrs), but the RTGs of Voyager 1 will continue to support some of its operations until around 2025.

I'm not sure but I think it only uses its power to run all the instruments on board and for its initial launch.

edit on 6-12-2012 by ArchaicDesigns because: (no reason given)

I was just reading this myself as I find it inconceivable that something the JPL built is still in operation for 33 years.

One thing I found rather stunning is the radioactive power source, produces 460 watts of power.
Heck, my blow dryer uses 1500W.

Think of how many watts of power a radio station needs to broadcast a signal. Then tell me how far you can broadcast with a 160w station?

I can't imagine how the electromagnetism as well as all the other radiation in deep space wouldn't have fried the circuits long ago.

I've seen the Lunar Landers and they are laughable as is that silly washtub on wheels the Mars Rover Curiosity.

It seems another preposterous, yet unprovable lie.

reply to post by PaperbackWriter


Yes, by the time the transmissions get back to Earth, they are very weak. How do they pick up the signal? Well, let me tell you what happened to me. I live in Seattle, WA. One day while going to work, I was very confused by the traffic reports. I didn't recognize half of the areas they were talking about. Then I wondered why they were so excited about the Raptors basketball team winning a game. Then I realized what happened. The conditions were right, and I was picking up a station from Toronto, Canada that had bounced off of the ionosphere and was captured by an antenna that is about 1.5 inches wide. NASA uses a 230 foot antenna to capture the signal from Voyager.

“At that great distance it takes more than 16 hours for a radio signal to travel from the spacecraft to one of NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas. The signal strength is so incredibly weak that it requires a giant 230-foot-diameter dish antenna to pick up the signal,” says Gurnett, principal investigator for Voyager 1’s plasma wave instrument.

Scientists have agreed August 25th 2012 as the date for Voyager 1's entry into interstellar space.

www.nasa.gov...

Since December 2004, when Voyager 1 crossed a point in space called the termination shock, the spacecraft has been exploring the heliosphere's outer layer, called the heliosheath. In this region, the stream of charged particles from the sun, known as the solar wind, abruptly slowed down from supersonic speeds and became turbulent. Voyager 1's environment was consistent for about five and a half years. The spacecraft then detected that the outward speed of the solar wind slowed to zero.
The intensity of the magnetic field also began to increase at that time.
Voyager data from two onboard instruments that measure charged particles showed the spacecraft first entered this magnetic highway region on July 28, 2012. The region ebbed away and flowed toward Voyager 1 several times. The spacecraft entered the region again Aug. 25 and the environment has been stable since.
"If we were judging by the charged particle data alone, I would have thought we were outside the heliosphere," said Stamatios Krimigis, principal investigator of the low-energy charged particle instrument, based at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. "But we need to look at what all the instruments are telling us and only time will tell whether our interpretations about this frontier are correct."

www.nasa.gov...

New and unexpected data indicate Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year through plasma, or ionized gas, present in the space between stars. Voyager is in a transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble, where some effects from our sun are still evident.

The plasma wave science team reviewed its data and found an earlier, fainter set of oscillations in October and November 2012. Through extrapolation of measured plasma densities from both events, the team determined Voyager 1 first entered interstellar space in August 2012.
"We literally jumped out of our seats when we saw these oscillations in our data -- they showed us the spacecraft was in an entirely new region, comparable to what was expected in interstellar space, and totally different than in the solar bubble," Gurnett said. "Clearly we had passed through the heliopause, which is the long-hypothesized boundary between the solar plasma and the interstellar plasma."
The new plasma data suggested a timeframe consistent with abrupt, durable changes in the density of energetic particles that were first detected on Aug. 25, 2012. The Voyager team generally accepts this date as the date of interstellar arrival. The charged particle and plasma changes were what would have been expected during a crossing of the heliopause.