# Voyager has left the Solar System. Space science dopers, please weigh in... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942 "2013-09-29T18:50:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/1 "2013-09-29T18:50:52Z")
Apparently, Voyager 1 has passed the Heliopause, and so is now in interstellar space. Here’s the [article](http://www.space.com/22729-voyager-1-spacecraft-interstellar-space.html) I first saw this on\*. I’ve googled up many links, many of which are utter crap. What’s the real deal? Has Voyager crossed the Heliopause? Has Elvis left the building? \*Actually, I first heard it on NPR, googled it, and this is the first article from a reputable source I got. I also got lots of obvious crap. ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/2 "2013-09-29T19:04:14Z")
We are now an interstellar species. Fly Voyager fly. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/3 "2013-09-29T19:15:46Z")
Frankly, I’m surprised it has lasted this long without being bombarded to heck by micrometeorites. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/4 "2013-09-29T19:31:54Z")
So far as scientists can determine, it has in fact left the heliopause, as has been anticipated for several years now. This is one reasonable definition for “edge of the Solar System”, but there are a number of other definitions, depending on context, and by many of those definitions, it’ll still be a very long time indeed before it “leaves the Solar System”. For instance, there are still plenty of objects which orbit the Sun, and which are much further away than the Voyager probes. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/5 "2013-09-29T19:32:35Z")
The [Bad Astronomer’s blog entry](http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/09/13/voyager_1_space_probe_is_in_now_in_interstellar_space.html) explains the situation pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/6 "2013-09-29T19:35:41Z")
Oh, and to explain by way of analogy what the heliopause is: Turn on the water in your kitchen sink. As the sink first starts filling up, there will be a circular region around where the water is hitting where it’s just jetting straight out, then there’s an abrupt boundary outside of which it’s smooth water. The heliopause is the equivalent of that boundary, where the solar wind stops jetting out and meets the calmer interstellar medium. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/7 "2013-09-29T19:43:43Z")
Appropriate [xkcd](http://xkcd.com/1189/) strip. ---
**Author:** ![Glazer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e57/32.png) [@Glazer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glazer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/8 "2013-09-29T20:08:33Z")
Will Voyager 1 keep going or will it eventually fall back towards the Sun? Just how fast is Solar escape velocity? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/9 "2013-09-29T20:37:44Z")
At the distance of Earth’s orbit from the sun, escape velocity from the Sun is around 90,000 mph. The farther out you get, the lower it is. Voyager is moving faster than escape velocity, and will never fall back to the Sun. As **Glazer** said: Fly, baby! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/10 "2013-09-29T20:44:47Z")
Personally, I like to think about, for example, the guy who made one of the bolts on the side of Voyager. It’s possible that eventually everything on Earth will be destroyed when the Sun goes supernova. But the bolt that guy made (along with the rest of Voyager) might well survive the rest of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/11 "2013-09-29T22:19:18Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > It’s possible that eventually everything on Earth will be destroyed when the Sun goes supernova. I like your thought, but the sun will not go supernova - it’s too small. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/12 "2013-09-29T22:24:08Z")
OK, but still, the Voyager spacecraft might outlast anything else made by humans. And some person out there knows that his/her bolts are on it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/13 "2013-09-30T01:30:07Z")
I certainly hope that we’ll make other interplanetary probes, which would likewise outlast the Earth. Heck, we already have at least four others that are escaping the Sun. ---
**Author:** ![Troutsqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Troutsqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troutsqueezer)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/14 "2013-09-30T04:43:52Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > OK, but still, the Voyager spacecraft might outlast anything else made by humans. And some person out there knows that his/her bolts are on it. How about the people whose voices and music are on the golden record? That’s a feather in your cap if ever there was one. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/15 "2013-09-30T05:50:15Z")
“Send more Chuck Berry.” ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/16 "2013-09-30T06:57:24Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Personally, I like to think about the guy who made one of the bolts on the side of Voyager… the bolt that guy made (along with the rest of Voyager) might well survive the rest of humanity. Or, …one day, a million years from now, archeologists will send a probe out to where the Voyager has travelled, pick it up and bring it back to earth, to put in a museum and study. It will be a perfectly preserved sample of the earliest known human technologies before the Silicon Era. (plus, it’s got Chuck Berry) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/17 "2013-09-30T08:14:34Z")
Or, it will return in the heart of an energy cloud some two-and-a-half centuries from now, destroying everything in its path, and demand to meet its creator. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/18 "2013-09-30T11:16:29Z")
> [@Troutsqueezer](#): > > How about the people whose voices and music are on the golden record? That’s a feather in your cap if ever there was one. I believe Carl Sagan’s son Nick does the greeting for the English language, that’s a legacy. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/19 "2013-09-30T16:42:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > OK, but still, the Voyager spacecraft might outlast anything else made by humans. And some person out there knows that his/her bolts are on it. I have it on good authority that it will be used as target practice by an alien warrior race. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942/20 "2013-09-30T18:56:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I certainly hope that we’ll make other interplanetary probes, which would likewise outlast the Earth. Heck, we already have at least four others that are escaping the Sun. New Horizons is also set for this, so that would be 5, once you get to 10 you get a free pizza. On Edit: missed where you stated four **others** , instead of just four. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voyager-has-left-the-solar-system-space-science-dopers-please-weigh-in/669942.md?page=2)