Voyager 1 Leaves Solar System

[BourbonBoy]

Voyager 1 probe leaving solar system reaches "magnetic highway" exit



SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - NASA's long-lived Voyager 1 spacecraft, which is heading out of the solar system, has reached a "magnetic highway" leading to interstellar space, scientists said on Monday.
The probe, launched 35 years ago to study the outer planets, is now about 11 billion miles (18 billion km) from Earth. At that distance, it takes radio signals traveling at the speed of light 17 hours to reach Earth. Light moves at 186,000 miles per second).


Voyager 1 will be the first manmade object to leave the solar system.
Scientists believe Voyager 1 is in an area where the magnetic field lines from the sun are connecting with magnetic field lines from interstellar space. The phenomenon is causing highly energetic particles from distant supernova explosions and other cosmic events to zoom inside the solar system, while less-energetic solar particles exit.


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Scientists don't know how long it will take for the probe to cross the so-called "magnetic highway," but they believe it is the last layer of a complex boundary between the region of space under the sun's influence and interstellar space.

Full y@hoo article here: http://news.**********/voyager-1-pro...023825204.html

As someone studying electronics, I find it fascinating that something built in the 1970's when modern circuits were in their infancy is not only still ticking and sending us wonderful images from our solar system, but is also going to be the first man made object to leave said system. Just imagine what the human race could accomplish if we quit the power hungry crap on this planet.

[Renatus]

I find this scary, what happens if some aliens intercept voyager, and then upgrade it, then once it starts returning to it's creators... us, it will likely end up destroying us unless we give into it's demands and sacrifice a crew member to directly link with the entity. We are damning our future generations!