Voyager has left the Solar System? or not?

Started by dawiw, March 20, 2013, 04:46:49 PM

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Colanth

Quote from: "stromboli"Assuming a vast number of potentially habitable planets, and assuming that some- millions- of them may be inhabited, the odds are that other life forms on other planets are at our stage of development or even ahead of us. That also assumes that they have sent out probes to other solar systems. Again, potentially millions.

It is therefore quite possible that we may, as our science advances, encounter one or more of those probes. I would think the odds greater than encountering the actual life form itself. So if we get gobsmacked by an alien version of Voyager, don't be too surprised.
And don't be surprised if theists claim that it's proof of their god.
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

Seabear

Quote from: "SGOS"I read that from Pluto, our own sun would appear as no more than a dim star, just another small prick of light among the other stars.  That far out is pretty lonely so to speak.  No friendly warmth from the sun, and I assume there is never any daytime, just the continual darkness of night.

Classroom charts of the solar system aren't even close to actual scale.  If they were, you couldn't see anything.  Everything would be just too small.  Even in this bundle of localized bustling activity that we call our solar system, it's mostly just empty space on a much vaster scale than I ever imagined before.
If the Sun were the size of a basketball, Earth would be 93 feet away. Jupiter would be ~500 feet away, and Saturn ~1000. Pluto would be almost 4000 feet away.

If the Sun were the size of a ping pong ball, the nearest star would be over 400 miles away.

If the Milky Way was only 1" in diameter, we know of enough galaxies to fill the volume of the Astrodome.

Lots of fun analogies... If earth was 1" from the Sun, a light-year is ~1 mile. If a hydrogen nucleus was 1" the electron is 3 feet away.

And so it goes.
"There is a saying in the scientific community, that every great scientific truth goes through three phases. First, people deny it. Second, they say it conflicts with the Bible. Third, they say they knew it all along."

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

NitzWalsh

If a hydrogen nucleus was 1", how far away from the sun would the Earth be?
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
~ Arthur C. Clarke

Plu

Quote from: "NitzWalsh"If a hydrogen nucleus was 1", how far away from the sun would the Earth be?

About 21,713,063,000,000,000,000,000 meters. Although given the size of the numbers, there's bound to be some rounding errors in there :P

Jason78

Quote from: "NitzWalsh"If a hydrogen nucleus was 1", how far away from the sun would the Earth be?

Don't ask people that are good at maths dumb arse questions.  

Because you will get an answer!
Winner of WitchSabrinas Best Advice Award 2012


We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real
tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. -Plato

NitzWalsh

Quote from: "Jason78"
Quote from: "NitzWalsh"If a hydrogen nucleus was 1", how far away from the sun would the Earth be?

Don't ask people that are good at maths dumb arse questions.  

Because you will get an answer!

I wanted an answer. But Plu should have used scientific notation.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
~ Arthur C. Clarke

Thumpalumpacus

Quote from: "SGOS"What happens when aliens finally intercept the thing?  I have this notion of an alien reaction:  "What is this thing?  Who keeps sending us this shit, and what the fuck are we supposed to do with it?"

Or maybe some variation of, "If you find a watch on the beach, you know it has to have a creator, but why does the creator send us this useless stuff?"

Pretty sure it'll be, "Goddamnit, FedEx fucked up again."
<insert witty aphorism here>