Voyager 1

[wobs]

The Voyager probes are some of the most awesome projects mankind has ever done.

Voyager 1 has finally seen a drop off of solar particles:

Which corresponds with an notable increase in galactic particles (thought to be from supernovae)

Which means it could finally be beyond our helipause.

A good article here:
http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2012/10/more-evidence-that-voyager-has-exited-the-solar-system/

 

[chapeau]

Those graphs don't make sense.

They are saying that at beginning of July 2012....

1) they detected approx 1.95 particles / sec of >70 MeV particles.
2) they detected approx 25 particles / sec of >0.5 MeV particles.

All the particles in the >0.5 MeV graph should also be included in the > 70MeV graph (as 70 > 0.5) but that isn't the case. So the graphs require further explanation. Also, in a 30 odd year journey it's rather strange to only show the final three months, that makes me think they are being selective and have something to hide, I'd want to see a little bit more data.

I remember seeing the Klingon warship using Pioneer 10 as target practice and thought that rather poignant.

 

[wobs]

Those graphs don't make sense.

They are saying that at beginning of July 2012....

1) they detected approx 1.95 particles / sec of >70 MeV particles.
2) they detected approx 25 particles / sec of >0.5 MeV particles.

All the particles in the >0.5 MeV graph should also be included in the > 70MeV graph (as 70 > 0.5) but that isn't the case. So the graphs require further explanation. Also, in a 30 odd year journey it's rather strange to only show the final three months, that makes me think they are being selective and have something to hide, I'd want to see a little bit more data.

I remember seeing the Klingon warship using Pioneer 10 as target practice and thought that rather poignant.

Its not the Klingons you need to worry about, its the strange alien clouds that swallow up our probes and bring them back. Have you not seen the first Star Trek film?

 

[jeds]

Those graphs don't make sense.

They are saying that at beginning of July 2012....

1) they detected approx 1.95 particles / sec of >70 MeV particles.
2) they detected approx 25 particles / sec of >0.5 MeV particles.

All the particles in the >0.5 MeV graph should also be included in the > 70MeV graph (as 70 > 0.5) but that isn't the case. So the graphs require further explanation. Also, in a 30 odd year journey it's rather strange to only show the final three months, that makes me think they are being selective and have something to hide, I'd want to see a little bit more data.

I remember seeing the Klingon warship using Pioneer 10 as target practice and thought that rather poignant.

It also seems odd that after a 30 year journey the >0.5 MeV particles dropped from about 25 to about 3 in the space of a day or two. Perhaps a bug splatted on the lens.

 

[chapeau]

Well I did some googling and answered my own question. There are two detectors on there, each optimised for a certain energy range. So the titles need tweaking.

 

[wobs]

Those graphs don't make sense.

They are saying that at beginning of July 2012....

1) they detected approx 1.95 particles / sec of >70 MeV particles.
2) they detected approx 25 particles / sec of >0.5 MeV particles.

All the particles in the >0.5 MeV graph should also be included in the > 70MeV graph (as 70 > 0.5) but that isn't the case. So the graphs require further explanation. Also, in a 30 odd year journey it's rather strange to only show the final three months, that makes me think they are being selective and have something to hide, I'd want to see a little bit more data.

Combining the two would show you even less. Seperating them shows us the galactic inlfuence increasing, and our own sun's influence fading out.

A truly historic event.

I'm sure you could find 30years of the data if you wanted, but most of it will hardly be interesting.

Jeds wrote:

It also seems odd that after a 30 year journey the >0.5 MeV particles dropped from about 25 to about 3 in the space of a day or two. Perhaps a bug splatted on the lens.

Good question.
The solar wind, which consists of mostly protons and electrons, do not have much penetrating power. It approx when they reach the galactic wind that they drop off in intensity.

The solar wind "blows a bubble" in the interstellar medium (the rarefied hydrogen and helium gas that permeates the galaxy). The point where the solar wind's strength is no longer great enough to push back the interstellar medium is known as the heliopause, and is often considered to be the outer "border" of the Solar System. The distance to the heliopause is not precisely known, and probably varies widely depending on the current velocity of the solar wind and the local density of the interstellar medium, but it is known to lie far outside the orbit of Pluto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind