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V'ger has left the building Nate Send a noteboard - 20/03/2013 08:21:02 PM

The Voyager 1 spacecraft, which was launched less than a month after the death of Elvis Presley in 1977, has officially left the solar system. Looks like it checked out in late August of last year. It stopped picking up radiation trapped in the outer reaches of the sun's magnetic field, and started picking up consistent galactic radiation instead. It's the first man-made object to leave our solar system.

The exciting thing is, we're not sure yet exactly where it's gone.

I mean, yeah. We know that it's about 18 billion kilometres away from us (about 11 billion miles). We know that it's about 122 times farther from the sun than the Earth is, and three times farther than Pluto. It is a Long Ways Away. But apparently we're not sure if it's some sort of empty interstellar space, or if it's in a new type of zone beyond the heliosphere that we don't understand yet. Brand new data is coming in and making scientists giggle and do little dances.

But the real question is, how long will it take until Voyager is given consciousness as a machine entity and returns as V'ger to seek its creator?

Edit: NASA ... disagrees? There's some confusion. See my post below for more.

Warder to starry_nite

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http://chapterfish.wordpress.com
This message last edited by Nate on 20/03/2013 at 09:36:31 PM
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V'ger has left the building - 20/03/2013 08:21:02 PM 820 Views
So. F*cking. Cool. - 20/03/2013 08:30:13 PM 464 Views
Its stuff like this.... - 20/03/2013 09:06:14 PM 486 Views
Woe! I've just learned ... - 20/03/2013 09:28:44 PM 484 Views
Apparently there is also disagreement about the definition of the solar system. - 20/03/2013 09:35:38 PM 510 Views
Basically, its the definition of a solar system. - 20/03/2013 10:00:11 PM 432 Views
It isn't exactly disagreement - 20/03/2013 11:00:09 PM 669 Views
As XKCD said today: - 22/03/2013 09:14:05 AM 611 Views
- 22/03/2013 12:55:32 PM 422 Views
There is still data coming back from it? *NM* - 21/03/2013 11:12:23 AM 199 Views
Yes, for another decade or so probably - 21/03/2013 11:58:41 AM 437 Views
You scared me. - 21/03/2013 05:13:13 PM 555 Views
It is amazing the thing is still working at all *NM* - 21/03/2013 06:10:59 PM 206 Views

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