NASA says it's official

[Doubting Thomas]

[Cyberman]

Speed on, little wanderer.

[Anomalocaris]

The Voyager I spacecraft has left our solar system and entered interstellar space. This was in the news last year, but the loss of an instrument in 1980 kept them from being sure. Now they have been able to confirm it using other on board instruments. The probe is now 17 light hours from Earth. That's about three times the distance to Pluto.

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/12/221732909/...llar-space

This is an idiotic definition of "interstellar space", as if the inner Oort Cloud isn't a part of the domain of the sun.

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The Voyager I spacecraft has left our solar system and entered interstellar space. This was in the news last year, but the loss of an instrument in 1980 kept them from being sure. Now they have been able to confirm it using other on board instruments. The probe is now 17 light hours from Earth. That's about three times the distance to Pluto.

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/12/221732909/...llar-space

They build that thing to last huh. Still first man made object to pass the OOrt cloud. There is hope yet.

It hasn't even reached the Oort Cloud yet.

[Cyberman]

Oh, and pappy? You can't fool me - that was Voyager 6 that's destined to return and doom us all.

[Anomalocaris]

I think it is more fair to say the domain of the sun ends where the gravity of the sun no longer predominates over the gravity of near by stars or the gravity of the galaxy overall. If the presence of the sun merely pertube the trajectory of an object, and does not essentially govern it, then the object has left the domain of the sun.

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You would think some supreme machine intelligence would have figured out how to scan through the dirt on that name plate and read the whole name.

[Doubting Thomas]

I thought it was V-giny

[zebo-the-fat]

All this on 1970's technology, I doubt any current computer chips would have lasted so long, the radiation alone would have fried them!

[Doubting Thomas]

Unless they're well shielded. But the thing about 1970's computer technology is that being so simple kept it robust. There was little to crash on 8-bit systems, unlike 32 or 64 bit Windows with too many bells & whistles.

[Anomalocaris]

I don't think there is evidence modern satellite electronics have gotten less reliable. In mean time between failure of satellite electronics have increased dramatically since the 1970s. Satellites with vastly more complex electronics than voyager now routinely operates 15 years.

In the 70s, 2-5 years would have been a good run for any satellite.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It is my fondest wish that Voyager gets eaten by the Giant Space Eel.

Boru