A big surprise indeed, and all the more of a surprise for the continued life of some very old distant probes indeed:


A Big Surprise from the Edge of the Solar System

June 9, 2011: NASA's Voyager probes are truly going where no one has gone before. Gliding silently toward the stars, 9 billion miles from Earth, they are beaming back news from the most distant, unexplored reaches of the solar system.

Mission scientists say the probes have just sent back some very big news indeed. ...


I never knew magnetic fields could do that! Are they maintained by matching electrical currents in the stellar plasma?

Keep searchin',
Martin

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Very interesting! I wonder what if anything, this means for the existence of other planets in "habitable zones." Does this mean there are much less of those zones than one would hope for? What implications if any, or benefits would this have on other planets within or near these zones?

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"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

Another story on this as well is found here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13715764

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Voyager2 on Twitter

Here is the twitter feed for Voyager2. It tweets location data for itself and its sister ship Voyager1. It also tweets position changes and other movements they make. Tweet example for movements: "All of the tweeted commands are part of autonomous onboard baseline sequences carried in memory." Very cool!

At the last tweet it was "13 hrs 08 mins 46 secs of light-travel time from Earth (2011:160:2L)." BBC is a few hours off but that's ok :P EDIT: Actually BBC is right...Voyager1 is "16 hrs 08 mins 25 secs of light-travel time from Earth (2011:161:1L)". Voyager2 is 13 hours...

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"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible". Hebrews 11.3

OK a question, Are the voyagers travelling in the same general direction that the sun is travelling through interstellar space or the opposite direction. In one case they would be going through bow shock and in the other they would be experiencing what happens in the wake. If that analogy is relevant.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

they are heading in 2 different directions. 1 is heading along the solar plane towards the edge of the heliosphere. The other is taking a course that is off the plane at about 60 degrees above the plane.

The drawing shows them hitting what appears to be the bow shock. We can either assume that the drawing is accurate of the artist took some liberties

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
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So, in addition to it's own velocity the voyager has imparted to it the velocity of the sun around the center of the galaxy. I understand that by comparison the velocity of the voyager is very small.

So, in addition to it's own velocity the voyager has imparted to it the velocity of the sun around the center of the galaxy. I understand that by comparison the velocity of the voyager is very small.

There is no absolute velocity.

Or did you mean that Voyager does not have galactic escape velocity.

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