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Originally posted by sonhouseIt's been on the verge of going interstellar for many months now, but one of the nice things about exploring new frontiers is that you never know exactly where they are. That's what makes it interesting to hear of the dear old thing, still going on.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/05/voyager_35_year_anniversary/
Bye bye, V'Ger! See you in a couple of centuries...
Richard
It is a quite amazing feat that was achieved with the Voyager programs.
The fact that they are still travelling, in said positions, and sending back info is almost beyond belief; especially when one considers that they have the equivalent of very old and outdated processors, working in word bits and a total of about 68kb between them. (6 in all, as far as I recall)
Let us hope they do get to 'Gallactica' amidst the stars.. 😀 .. and continue to send feedback. I hope I'm alive when we meet our first counterparts out there! 😉
-m.
Originally posted by kaminskyvoyager 1 is (at present) the man-made artifact with the highest distance to the sun (need we discuss the problems of establishing distnaces to sun and earth?) with about 122 Astronomic Units. It travels with a speed of about 3.6 AU/year. In another 35 years this will amount to another 126 AU (and you see that the device is travelling at about the same rate since a long time. Only in the beginning it accelerated)
iF I live another 35 years ,how far will voyger have travelled. Pioneer looks to have travelled farther.
Pioneer 10 (I presume you wrote about that one?) was the farthest object until February 1998) when it was overtaken by the three years later launched voyager-1. It has a speed of about 2.6 AU/year which is considerably slower than voyager-1. It is probably about 103 Au from the sun by now. Though we can't know for sure since contact broke in 2003.
Originally posted by Ponderable
voyager 1 is (at present) the man-made artifact with the highest distance to the sun (need we discuss the problems of establishing distnaces to sun and earth?) with about 122 Astronomic Units. It travels with a speed of about 3.6 AU/year. In another 35 years this will amount to another 126 AU (and you see that the device is travelling at about the same r ...[text shortened]... ly about 103 Au from the sun by now. Though we can't know for sure since contact broke in 2003.
It is probably about 103 Au from the sun by now. Though we can't know for sure since contact broke in 2003.
I think we can be almost certain that it is about that far since the physics says it should be although there is a very tiny chance of it having collided with a space rock/object that stopped it in its tracks.
Originally posted by humyStopping in its tracks would be the most unlikely case, but a change of direction could alter the traveling data considerably. But then the accepted theory is that matter is even more sparsley distributed outside the Kuiper belt ...It is probably about 103 Au from the sun by now. Though we can't know for sure since contact broke in 2003.
I think we can be almost certain that it is about that far since the physics says it should be although there is a very tiny chance of it having collided with a space rock/object that stopped it in its tracks.
Originally posted by PonderableWhat do you mean contact broke in 03? They are both working fine. They shut off the camera's is all. They collect data daily even now.
voyager 1 is (at present) the man-made artifact with the highest distance to the sun (need we discuss the problems of establishing distnaces to sun and earth?) with about 122 Astronomic Units. It travels with a speed of about 3.6 AU/year. In another 35 years this will amount to another 126 AU (and you see that the device is travelling at about the same r ...[text shortened]... ly about 103 Au from the sun by now. Though we can't know for sure since contact broke in 2003.
I decided to do a quick check on Voyager-1's current communication status and found this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Current_status
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On May 21, 2011, the spacecraft was reported at 12.44° declination and 17.163 hours right ascension, and at an ecliptic latitude of 34.9° (the ecliptic latitude changes very slowly), placing it in the constellation Ophiuchus as observed from the Earth.[14] NASA continued its daily tracking of Voyager 1 with its Deep Space Network. This network measures both the elevation and azimuth angles of the incoming radio waves from Voyager 1, and it also measures the distance from the Earth to Voyager 1.
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On December 1, 2011, it was announced that Voyager 1 detected the first Lyman-alpha radiation originating from the Milky Way galaxy. Lyman-alpha radiation had previously been detected from other galaxies, but due to interference from the Sun, the radiation from the Milky Way was not detectable.
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On September 9, 2012, Voyager 1 was 121.836 AU (1.82264×1010 km; 1.13254×1010 mi) from the Earth and 121.798 AU (1.82207×1010 km; 1.13218×1010 mi) from the Sun; and traveling at 17.043 km/s (38,120 mph) (relative to the Sun) and traveling outward at about 3.595 AU per year.[2] Sunlight takes 16.89 hours to get to Voyager 1. The brightness of the Sun from the spacecraft is magnitude -16.3.[2] Voyager 1 is heading in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus.[2] (To compare, Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun, is about 4.2 light-years (or 2.65×105 AU) distant. Voyager 1's current relative velocity to the Sun is 17,060 m/s (61,400 km/h; 38,200 mph). This calculates as 3.599 AU per year, about 10% faster than Voyager 2. At this velocity, 74,438 years would pass before reaching the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, were the spacecraft traveling in the direction of that star. Voyager 1 will need about 17,522 years at its current velocity to travel a complete light year.)
Voyager 1 is predicted to enter the interstellar medium between 2012–15.
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So not only is Voyager 1 still sending back meaningful data, we still know almost exactly where and how far away Voyager 1 currently is.
I wonder how long before its nuclear power source gets so spent that Voyager 1 stops sending radio signals and thus we finality loose contact with it for good.
Does anyone know of an estimate of how long? Will it still be sending us data in 100 years time?
Originally posted by humyYou need to go to the real source:
I decided to do a quick check on Voyager-1's current communication status and found this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Current_status
“....
….
On May 21, 2011, the spacecraft was reported at 12.44° declination and 17.163 hours right ascension, and at an ecliptic latitude of 34.9° (the ecliptic latitude changes very slowly), placing it in the c ...[text shortened]... es anyone know of an estimate of how long? Will it still be sending us data in 100 years time?
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/
They are both reporting every day, you can see the distance change second by second on the graphic on the first page.
Originally posted by kaminskyThey are currently traveling about 40,000 mph away from the sun so that is good enough to say away from us so in 1 year you could call it 8000 hours so, about 320 million miles per year so in 35 years, about 11 billion miles further away. 120 AU more. I think that would double the present distance of also about 11 billion miles so putting it about 240 AU or 22 billion miles away from Earth and the Sun.
iF I live another 35 years ,how far will voyger have travelled. Pioneer looks to have travelled farther.
And of course it wouldn't matter to the movement of the craft if all systems died, the momentum would still be there since it is not under rocket power any longer.
Does anyone know what stars it will get close to in the coming centuries, if any?
Roughly 33 billion miles per century so in 1000 centuries it will be 33 trillion miles away, roughly 6 light years from home in 100,000 years. It will probably outlast the human race.
So in 100 million years about 600 ly from home. 1 billion years, 6000 ly, 10 billion years, 60,000 light years away. So it can't even go half the width of the Milky way in the next 10 billion years.....
Originally posted by sonhouse
They are currently traveling about 40,000 mph away from the sun so that is good enough to say away from us so in 1 year you could call it 8000 hours so, about 320 million miles per year so in 35 years, about 11 billion miles further away. 120 AU more. I think that would double the present distance of also about 11 billion miles so putting it about 240 AU or ...[text shortened]... rs away. So it can't even go half the width of the Milky way in the next 10 billion years.....
Does anyone know what stars it will get close to in the coming centuries, if any?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Current_status
“...Voyager 1 is not heading towards any particular star, but in about 40,000 years it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888, which is at present in the constellation Camelopardalis. That star is generally moving towards our Solar System at about 119 km/s (430,000 km/h; 270,000 mph)....”
Originally posted by humySo it's more a matter of the star coming to Voyager rather than the other way round, since it seems to be going about ten times faster....Does anyone know what stars it will get close to in the coming centuries, if any?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Current_status
“...Voyager 1 is not heading towards any particular star, but in about 40,000 years it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888, which is at present in the constellation Camelopardalis. That s ...[text shortened]... is generally moving towards our Solar System at about 119 km/s (430,000 km/h; 270,000 mph)....”
I wonder how close the star will come to our solar system in 40K years?
Originally posted by sonhouse
So it's more a matter of the star coming to Voyager rather than the other way round, since it seems to be going about ten times faster....
I wonder how close the star will come to our solar system in 40K years?
I wonder how close the star will come to our solar system in 40K years?
it is due to enter our solar system........................only kidding.
Originally posted by humyIf my numbers are right, in 40K years the voyager will only be out about 2 1/2 light years so if it comes within 1.6 LY of voyager and it is on the other side of it, that star will be vying for the closest star, about 4 LY away, assuming worse case scenario.I wonder how close the star will come to our solar system in 40K years?
it is due to enter our solar system........................only kidding.