Previous times it has left:<p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4867577" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4867577</a> (106 days ago)<p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4619731" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4619731</a> (165 days ago)<p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4483757" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4483757</a> (195 days ago)<p>Seems like we're still not sure it's left due to lack of agreement on what constitutes leaving:<p><i>However, Webber notes, scientists are continuing to debate whether Voyager 1 has reached interstellar space or entered a separate, undefined region beyond the solar system.</i>
Anyone remember that science fiction story, where the first ship to leave the solar system shatters some shell. And that it's later discovered that all stars have the same shell, which is impermeable from the outside. Sort of an enforced prime directive by unknown powers? This reminded me of that, and despite many searches I'm not getting any hits.
Not trying to troll, but how many times has Voyager left the solar system now? Do we even have a clear boundary of where the solar system ends?<p>edited for clarity.
No, it hasn't left the solar system. An update from NASA:<p><a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/m/news/index.cfm?release=2013-107" rel="nofollow">http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/m/news/index.cfm?release=2013-107</a>
If a spacecraft were to travel orthogonal to the plane on which planets orbit the sun, would it experience the heliosheath as it exits the solar system? For that matter, have there been any spacecraft launched that didn't travel on the orbital plane (ignoring earth-orbiting spacecraft)?
Maybe I'm just emotional today but the "Acknowledgments" section for the accepted journal was touching. I can only imagine what it felt like to complete the work of a good friend.
I want to say there has been some discussion about space travel to other worlds and "leaving too soon", ie - if you launch today, a space craft that launches to the same destination a year from now would beat you there, because the technology would have progressed to the point that the later ship was much faster.<p>If we were to launch a state of the art probe today, how long would it take to get to where voyager 1 is now after 35 years of travel?
Maybe someone with experience in the field of communications and space can clarify my doubts: how we can improve the flow of data transmission to Earth? Imagine a string of satellites that communicate with each other so that the message reaches the earth faster distributed way. Now it seems that communications between satellites and Earth are slower and it has greater delays.
<a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-107" rel="nofollow">http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-107</a><p>"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
I don't think this is anything new? We've had reports for over a year that Voyager has been getting anomalous readings. Whether or not that indicates having "left the solar system" is still a matter of debate (unless this article is trying to say that the debate has been settled), although it's certainly still exciting.
When it is finally agreed that it has left (which presumably will occur within the next year or two), What Then?<p>I'm not hopeful that we'll be surprised in a major by the data coming from outside the heliosphere; to be honest I'm a bit worried that a lack of novelty will increase public apathy - 'We made it out! ...and that's all folks, shows over.' It's a bit like the moon landings; having been there and run out of convincing reasons to go back, we're heading back to that situation of no living person having walked on the surface of another world (<a href="http://xkcd.com/893/" rel="nofollow">http://xkcd.com/893/</a>).<p>Props to Elon Musk etc., but I'm not all that optimistic about private enterprise just filling this niche.
Just this morning I listened to the Voyager Engineering Team on an old NPR Radio Lab episode where the crew mentioned that every day they check their Google Alerts to see if Voyager has left our solar system. I imagine their celebrating today.
CORRECTED PRESS RELEASE
Please note that the headline on this release has been changed to better represent the findings reported in the study. New title - "Voyager 1 has entered a new region of space, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate"
Besides ‘oh, how many times it will left it?’, I wonder why many find someone's (another) whining about google reader or new bugs in rails more interesting than this.
From: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21866532" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21866532</a><p>The Voyager project scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Ed Stone, said he wanted to see a reorientation of the magnetic fields around the probe before declaring it to be in interstellar space. This was a "critical marker", he added. "…that change of direction has not yet been observed."
Beyond the discussion of 'how many times it has left already' I wonder what's the next Voyager spacecraft.<p>New Horizons certainly looks like it's going to help, it's a flyby mission to Pluto, and it's going faster than Voyager 1/2 apparently (haven't checked)<p>With modern equipment and transmission technology, hopefully it will help solve part of the mystery (or get its circuits fried with excess radiation outside of the solar system - too far fetched?)
It's not even 1/7th of the way to the aphelion of minor planet Sedna:<p><a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sedna+aphelion+/+voyager+1+distance+to+sun" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sedna+aphelion+/+voyage...</a>
While the Peer Review process is critical to the scientific method, it does slow down information.<p>To advertise this as a recent event when the article itself clearly states the measurements are from August 2012 is a tad disingenuous.
If the engineers that worked on Voyager 1 haven't won an award yet for the longevity and success of this program it's a damn shame.<p>It might be time to throw together a site chronicling old stuff in space that still works.
Dumb question...<p>How is Voyager able to transmit such a great distance, even after all these years? Hasn't its battery died yet? Also how does it power its sensors (to measure radiation and such)?