Voyager I and II are leaving our Solar system

In august and September 1977 NASA launched the satellites Voyager I and II. I am always curious about them because they are launched just before and after my birthday. They are human made objects with the greatest distance to Earth ever. But where is that? Voyager I is at the unbelievable distance of 18,42 billion kilometers (that is 18,42 terameters for real nerds). Voyager II is only 15 terameters away from Earth.

A schematic to show the flight paths of Voyager I and II. Voyager II left
Earth two weeks earlier, but Voyager I took the lead very soon. Both
satellites are now about the leave the heliosphere, the zone of solar
influence.

Those distances are huge, but not yet as great as light-years  The time it takes before a radio message from Voyager I to received on Earth is more than 17 hours. A message like that travels with the speed of light. You could say, Voyager I is at a distance of 17 light-hours at the moment. A light-years is 515 times further than the distance between the satellite and Earth.

A picture of the Voyager satellite. In the metal tube at the
bottom is the atomic generator. The big dish is needed to
communicate with earth. The very long antenna is used to
measure the weak magnetic effects of the solar wind.

Sometime in the next 10 to 15 years Voyager I will finally leave the solar system. Probably it will run out of energy before that time. Or the distance towards the Earth is getting too problematic. Hopefully they will be still alive to witness this special moment. In any case these two satellites will once become the furthest pieces of garbage we even sent into space.

Golden sign on the Voyager satellites with information for
alien species. It says who we are and where they can find
us. I will write another blog once about what all these
figures mean.

More information:
- Live information on the distance between Voyager I and II and Earth: Voyager.jpl.nasa.gov
- The latest measurements of Voyager I made scientists doubt about the size of the heliosphere. Maybe Voyager I will be busy for another decade before it has really left the solar system: Voyager 1: 'reports of my exit are greatly exaggerated'

De Nederlandse versie van deze blog bijdrage: Voyager I en II verlaten bijna het zonnestelsel

From the edge of space; highest marketing campaign ever!

Welcome at my blog about science which is mis-used or mis-interpreted. This first item is dedicated to Felix Baumgartner. That guy in Red Bull-outfit who jumped from 39 km height. A big scientific step as it says everywhere in the media. I guess it is clear to you, that I cannot stand this. And the worst is that Red Bull and its media partners keep on bringing 'new' stuff about the jump every day

"From the edge of space" is the ever repeating slogan. Normally the Kármán line is defined as the hight where space begins. This is 100 km high. And did you know that  even at the height of 355 km, the international space station ISS is slightly being slowed down by the last molecules of the earths atmosphere? Baumgartner wasn't even close the space yet.

The records which Baumgartner set (the highest jump, the highest ballon ride and the falling faster that the speed of sound) are no new things of 2012. They are just perfectioned versions of records Joseph Kittinger set in 1960. Yes, that long ago! Kittinger jumped from 31 km high and was even longer in free fall than Baumgartner. That last record Baumgartner did not even break. Kittinger fell down with a maximum speed of 988 km/h, not even too much from the speed of sound (1236 km/h). In more that 50 years not much was added...

Joseph Kittinger jumps at 31,3 km height out of a balloon
at Augustus 16th 1960.

I have always been a fan of Joseph Kittinger. He is the perfect example of someone who puts his life at risk, just to see what would happen. Someone has to do it, right? He almost lost his hand because his glove failed with -50 degrees centigrade. This was real scientific exploration, although it didn't look very fancy.

Red Bull turnes this into a nice commercial. It is a marketing machine not a scientific discovery! Unfortunately it fits with the era in which we live at the moment. No new content, no fresh ideas that change the world, but just 'old wine in new bottles'. It's all about amusement and spectacle, all at the cost of innovation. And where are those (scientific) heroes when you need them...

More info?
The site of Red Bull, without much detailed information: www.redbullstratos.com/the-mission/world-record-jump/
For those interested in the real deal. De jumps Joseph Kittinger did around 1960: wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior

De Nederlandse versie van deze blogbijdrage: From the edge of space, de hoogste marketingstunt ooit.