NASA's Voyager 2 Probe Enters Interstellar Space

what it so funny, when someone opens it they will wind old record player and disc and probably starts scratching and thinking so this is what being human was about, glad they send this player

Playing Devil's Advocate here.......the Voyagers have a LOT farther to go before they leave the Sun's gravitational influence, so you could argue that they have not actually left the Solar System at all, and will not do so for thousands of years.

a reply to: Mogget


Not really the Devil's Advocate!

It is the definitions that people do not fully understand (I always look them up to be sure myself).

First off, the heliopause is the flow of particles (solar wind) and the protective magnetic bubble emanating from the sun. It shrinks and grows so there is no real set distance. Probably why they waited to make the announcement that V2 has indeed left the sun's bubble.

The next, the sun's gravity, is a "best guess" because we have never been out so far! The guess is 1- to 2- light years. At some point the sun's gravity will be off set by other stars/objects/(tractor beam! lol). A light year, of course, is how far light travels in the vacuum over the period of a year. The radio signals from Voyagers are still being measured in hours! [added link below]. BTW, the googles says, "1 year = 8760 hours", so there is still a long way to travel!

Reading/source material, universetoday.com - Characteristics of the Sun (see, "gravity")

Exit the heliopause? Yes. Technically, that is considered "between star" space.
Exit the sun's overall influence? Nope.

ETA: NASA webpage: Voyagers Telemetry, says "20 H 5 M one-way light time"! Calculator says we need 438 total V2 mission times to get out to a light year! *poof*



PS - A friend of the devil is a friend of mine!

a reply to: gortex

Sure it´s not made from vinyl, I lacked to words to describe it.

originally posted by: Gargoyle91
a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Sending these out into the unknown pointing out where we are is the dumbest thing ever .

Any civ that finds it could track it's origin down just by trajectory. So basically sending anything out into the unknown is telling everyone where we are at.