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On June 30 2013 02:07 saltis wrote:
I wondering why Termination Shock depicted the way its so narrow on the left side of the picture, while on the right side is so wide ?
I believe you're talking about the heliosheath, not the termination shock. The termination shock is where our solar wind goes subsonic. Different parts of the sun contribute to the solar wind differently, but since the sun rotates, the termination shock should look spherically symmetric if in any direction the solar wind is blowing at the same speed.
The answer to why the heliosheath is shown to be elongated on one end is because when the picture was made the assumption was that the sun plowed through interstellar space like James Bond in a speedboat. The heliosheath (region of subsonic solar wind material) would thus be much longer in the tail region behind the sun than in the front of the sun, where it interacts with interstellar space in a huge bow shock.
However, in these two respects you can consider the picture outdated: It's no longer thought that our sun has a bow shock right now. (It depends on the speed of the star, its stellar wind, and the characteristics of the space it's moving through. For instance, right now our sun lives in the Local Bubble which isn't as dense as most interstellar space. But things change over time - maybe dinosaur astronomers could have seen a bow shock.) Secondly, the stretched shape of the heliosheath is doubted.
So in short, the reason the picture looks that way is it was our best guess. It's perfectly possible in principle for stars to have bow shocks, as we can see stars that have them. But when that picture was made we didn't know as much about our own solar system as we do now.
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On June 30 2013 02:09 codonbyte wrote:Show nested quote +On June 30 2013 01:59 m00nchile wrote:On June 30 2013 01:26 codonbyte wrote:On June 29 2013 17:51 aZealot wrote:
The time scale in the novel was millions of years in the future (IIRC) and humanity was long extinct. The metal of which Voyager is made just breaks up into into little pieces and the long journey comes to an end. Why does the metal break apart into little pieces? It's in the vacuum of space. No atmosphere to wear away at it, no moisture to make it rust, no corrosive chemicals, why would it break apart, unless it hit some sort of micrometeorite? Are we supposed to believe that cosmic rays would eventually tear it apart? He was just giving a synopsis of a work of fiction, he didn't claim this would happen? Why are you on him, he didn't write the story. I'm not "on him". I'm wondering how realistic that work of fiction was. Obviously he didn't write it, and I'm sure the work of fiction is a good piece of writing even if it isn't totally realistic. It just got me thinking about whether that would be the ultimate fate of the Voyager.
well, there is a lot of gas in a galaxy, might wear out the metal.
Or it will drift until its catched by a sun.
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On June 30 2013 04:27 LaNague wrote:Show nested quote +On June 30 2013 02:09 codonbyte wrote:On June 30 2013 01:59 m00nchile wrote:On June 30 2013 01:26 codonbyte wrote:On June 29 2013 17:51 aZealot wrote:
The time scale in the novel was millions of years in the future (IIRC) and humanity was long extinct. The metal of which Voyager is made just breaks up into into little pieces and the long journey comes to an end. Why does the metal break apart into little pieces? It's in the vacuum of space. No atmosphere to wear away at it, no moisture to make it rust, no corrosive chemicals, why would it break apart, unless it hit some sort of micrometeorite? Are we supposed to believe that cosmic rays would eventually tear it apart? He was just giving a synopsis of a work of fiction, he didn't claim this would happen? Why are you on him, he didn't write the story. I'm not "on him". I'm wondering how realistic that work of fiction was. Obviously he didn't write it, and I'm sure the work of fiction is a good piece of writing even if it isn't totally realistic. It just got me thinking about whether that would be the ultimate fate of the Voyager. well, there is a lot of gas in a galaxy, might wear out the metal. Or it will drift until its catched by a sun.
Getting caught is unlikely, because even if it's heading towards a star, it will be at or above that star's escape velocity. It'd have to either hit the star dead-on, or approach a star system with multiple planets and get lots of gravity assists that slow it down.
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It really is a break through moment whenever it breaks through the heliopause. Something man made will officially be traveling through space between the stars. So cool.
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So how many times has this thing "left the solar system" now?
Regardless, it's awesome.
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On June 30 2013 19:56 Mafe wrote:
So how many times has this thing "left the solar system" now?
Regardless, it's awesome.
Once. It's just an argument of when it left the solar system, in other words where the solar system ends.
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On June 30 2013 03:16 saltis wrote:
Technically lifespan is short and nobody can travel quicker than light speed? Humanity is just about to grasp Dark matter/energy, conception of time and space interaction but at the same time we are about to destroy ourselves too. We have more atomic weapons than Nuclear Power Plants (even though they are so primitive and capable only of heating water in the reactor).
Sadly, If Darwin's theory " survival of fittest" is correct, than other species destroyed themselves before they could reach the stars.
If Bible is correct, than scientists still have to discovered other dimensions with different type of physical or "spiritual" laws, something what Bible calls " spiritual realm". Maybe we are not worthy yet to communicate with other (either physical or "spiritual"- other dimensions) civilisations.
profound
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EPT
