The Universe

[RawB93]

Sadly this topic has slid down the list of my participated topics so thought I'd bump it with this - http://htwins.net/scale/

It's an interactive scale of the universe which allows you to scroll right down past ants, water molecules right down to quantum foam. And of course back out past Everest, the sun to the boundaries of the observable universe. Really puts things into perspective. Blew my mind the first time I saw it.

[energyzone]

I read a couple of articles recently which said Ison wasn't going to be anywhere near as bright as first thought, which would be very disappointing.

[King Joffrey]

I saw this on uberfacts so it might be bullshit, but if you put a giant mirror 10 light years away from Earth then looked at it through a telescope would we see Earth but what was happening 20 years ago?

[Confidemus]

I saw this on uberfacts so it might be bullshit, but if you put a giant mirror 10 light years away from Earth then looked at it through a telescope would we see Earth but what was happening 20 years ago?

It would have to be a hell of a size of telescope and miror. At 1/2 a light year away, the smallest object the Hubble telescope can see is around 2.85 million miles in diameter. So to get a telescope and mirror to represent a clear vision of the Earth at that distance, you're talking a bigger mirror and telescope than can possibly be built.

And even if it could be built, the image would very likely be dim and distorted.

[Confidemus]

It would appear that Voyager has now left the solar sysytem. Thats pretty fucking big news..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24026153

The Voyager-1 spacecraft has become the first manmade object to leave the Solar System.

Scientists say the probe's instruments indicate it has moved beyond the bubble of hot gas from our Sun and is now moving in the space between the stars.

Launched in 1977, Voyager was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going.

Today, the veteran Nasa mission is almost 19 billion km (12 billion miles) from home.

This distance is so vast that it takes 17 hours now for a radio signal sent from Voyager to reach receivers here on Earth.

"This is really a key milestone that we'd been hoping we would reach when we started this project over 40 years ago - that we would get a spacecraft into interstellar space," said Prof Ed Stone, the chief scientist on the venture.

"Scientifically it's a major milestone, but also historically - this is one of those journeys of exploration like circumnavigating the globe for the first time or having a footprint on the Moon for the first time. This is the first time we've begun to explore the space between the stars," he told BBC News.

Sensors on Voyager had been indicating for some time that its local environment had changed.

The data that finally convinced the mission team to call the jump to interstellar space came from the probe's Plasma Wave Science (PWS) instrument. This can measure the density of charged particles in Voyager's vicinity.

Readings taken in April/May this year and October/November last year revealed a near-100-fold jump in the number of protons occupying every cubic metre of space.

Scientists have long theorised such a spike would eventually be observed if Voyager could get beyond the influence of the magnetic fields and particle wind that billow from the surface of the Sun.

When the Voyager team put the new data together with information from the other instruments onboard, they calculated the moment of escape to have occurred on or about 25 August, 2012. This conclusion is contained in a report published by the journal Science.

"This is big; it's really impressive - the first human-made object to make it out into interstellar space," said Prof Don Gurnett from the University of Iowa and the principal investigator on the PWS.

On 25 August, 2012, Voyager-1 was some 121 Astronomical Units away. That is, 121 times the separation between the Earth and the Sun.

Breaching the boundary, known technically as the heliopause, was, said the English Astronomer Royal, Prof Sir Martin Rees, a remarkable achievement: "It's utterly astonishing that this fragile artefact, based on 1970s technology, can signal its presence from this immense distance."

Although now embedded in the gas, dust and magnetic fields from other stars, Voyager still feels a gravitational tug from the Sun, just as some comets do that lie even further out in space. But to all intents and purposes, it has left what most people would define as the Solar System. It is now in a completely new domain.

Voyager-1 departed Earth on 5 September 1977, a few days after its sister spacecraft, Voyager-2.

The pair's primary objective was to survey the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - a task they completed in 1989.

They were then steered towards deep space. It is expected that their plutonium power sources will stop supplying electricity in about 10 years, at which point their instruments and their 20W transmitters will die.

Voyager-1 will not approach another star for nearly 40,000 years, even though it is moving at 45km/s (100,000mph).

"Voyager-1 will be in orbit around the centre of our galaxy with all its stars for billions of years," said Prof Stone.

The probe's work is not quite done, however. For as long as they have working instruments, scientists will want to sample the new environment.

The new region through which Voyager is now flying was generated and sculpted by big stars that exploded millions of years ago.

There is indirect evidence and models to describe the conditions in this medium, but Voyager can now measure them for real and report back.

The renowned British planetary scientist Prof Fred Taylor commented: "As a young post-doc, I went to [Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory] and worked for a while with the team that was doing the science definition study for the Outer Planets Grand Tour, which later became Voyager.

"It seemed so incredible and exciting to think we would see and explore Jupiter and Saturn close up, let alone Uranus and Neptune.

"The idea that the spacecraft would then exit the Solar System altogether was so way out, figuratively as well as literally, that we didn't even discuss it then, although I suppose we knew it would happen someday. Forty-three years later, that day has arrived, and Voyager is still finding new frontiers."

[JustOneCornetto]

Voyager, to boldly go!

[Tamdunk]

Atheism: The belief that we have a long way to go before we even begin to understand the infinite complexities of the universe.

Religion: "The big magic sky-man made it all, now give me some money."

Cos noone ever made money off atheism.

[FlyerTon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2hPMZlOfnE

I see Magic Fly by Space was at no 5 in the charts the week of Voyager 1 Launch (5 Sep 1977)

[Broken Algorithms]

As I said on twitter earlier, it will be interesting to see the types of images and feedback we would get back if we sent our a similar probe into space for 36 years. Hopefully in 2049 we'll be posting away on this topic marvelling at how humanity has done. xbl will probably still hate christmas and Philpy will still be posting terrible puns....

[tinkerbelle]

Speak for yourself. I'll be deid.

[Gnash]

Two points on this:

First - haven't we had this story at least twice before?

Second - presumably the stuff in the Oort Cloud is not part of the Solar System, since Voyager is only 1/500th of the distance to the edge of it. Just seems a bit strange that stuff that orbits the sun is not part of the solar system.

[FlyerTon]

Voyager 1 captures sounds of Insterstellar Space:

Spooky.....

[Confidemus]

Two points on this:

First - haven't we had this story at least twice before?

Second - presumably the stuff in the Oort Cloud is not part of the Solar System, since Voyager is only 1/500th of the distance to the edge of it. Just seems a bit strange that stuff that orbits the sun is not part of the solar system.

First - Nope, Voyager has never left the solar system before

Second - Have you read the article?

[RawB93]

Atheism: The belief that we have a long way to go before we even begin to understand the infinite complexities of the universe.

Religion: "The big magic sky-man made it all, now give me some money."

That's mind numbingly ignorant

[Hedgecutter]

I was kind of hoping Voyager would smack into a black wall at the edge of the Solar System, similar to the end of the Truman Show. That would have been interesting imo.

[welshbairn]

I was kind of hoping Voyager would smack into a black wall at the edge of the Solar System, similar to the end of the Truman Show. That would have been interesting imo.

That happened just after the moon. Aliens have been broadcasting appropriate signals ever since to fool us into thinking we're not in a giant Dyson sphere.

[energyzone]

Two points on this:

First - haven't we had this story at least twice before?

Second - presumably the stuff in the Oort Cloud is not part of the Solar System, since Voyager is only 1/500th of the distance to the edge of it.  Just seems a bit strange that stuff that orbits the sun is not part of the solar system. 

The Oort Cloud is considered part of the Solar System. Voyager 1 has not left the Solar System - it has however crossed into interstellar space. Inaccurate media reports state that it has left the Solar System.

For those interested, the team working with the Voyage spacecraft did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit the other night:-

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m9wke/were_scientists_and_engineers_on_nasas_voyager/.compact

[Gnash]

First - Nope, Voyager has never left the solar system before

Second - Have you read the article?

We've definitely had a similar story a couple of times before. Maybe the previous times it was about some indications of it happening, and this is now definite.

I hadn't read the whole article, but the first line couldn't be clearer: "The Voyager-1 spacecraft has become the first manmade object to leave the Solar System". I've read the whole thing now and see it mentions: "what most people would define as the Solar System".

The Oort Cloud is considered part of the Solar System. Voyager 1 has not left the Solar System - it has however crossed into interstellar space. Inaccurate media reports state that it has left the Solar System.

For those interested, the team working with the Voyage spacecraft did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit the other night:-

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1m9wke/were_scientists_and_engineers_on_nasas_voyager/.compact

Cool, thanks. Here's the most relevant quotes: "Are you aware that, despite no where in the official press release talking about 'leaving the solar system', that that is still the headline for CNN, BBC, and a host of other prominent outlets?" "many people don't realize the Oort cloud is in interstellar space AND it's considered part of the solar system. We knew many media would make the error and we tried to make it clear in interviews. And you're right -- none of our materials say we've exited the solar system."

[dorlomin]

[~~~]

I heard a rumour Voyager has located the title deeds