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Voyager 1 has left the solar system, says new study
2 hours ago
(Phys.org) —Voyager 1 appears to have at long last left our solar system and entered interstellar space, says a University of Maryland-led team of researchers.

Carrying Earthly greetings on a gold plated phonograph record and still-operational scientific instruments – including the Low Energy Charged Particle detector designed, built and overseen, in part, by UMD's Space Physics Group – NASA's Voyager 1 has traveled farther from Earth than any other human-made object. And now, these researchers say, it has begun the first exploration of our galaxy beyond the Sun's influence.
"It's a somewhat controversial view, but we think Voyager has finally left the Solar System, and is truly beginning its travels through the Milky Way," says UMD research scientist Marc Swisdak, lead author of a new paper published online this week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Swisdak and fellow plasma physicists James F. Drake, also of the University of Maryland, and Merav Opher of Boston University have constructed a model of the outer edge of the Solar System that fits recent observations, both expected and unexpected.
Their model indicates Voyager 1 actually entered interstellar space a little more than a year ago, a finding directly counter to recent papers by NASA and other scientists suggesting the spacecraft was still in a fuzzily-defined transition zone between the Sun's sphere of influence and the rest of the galaxy.
But why the controversy?
At issue is what the boundary-crossing should look like to Earth-bound observers 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away. The Sun's envelope, known as the heliosphere, is relatively well-understood as the region of space dominated by the magnetic field and charged particles emanating from our star. The heliopause transition zone is both of unknown structure and location. According to conventional wisdom, we'll know we've passed through this mysterious boundary when we stop seeing solar particles and start seeing galactic particles, and we also detect a change in the prevailing direction of the local magnetic field.
[link to phys.org]

Strange NASA/JPL Press Releases this month-

JUNO IS HALFWAY TO JUPITER:

[link to www.jpl.nasa.gov]

Well, not really, Juno is actually farther away from Jupiter than when it was launched....I'm not joking either.

I got curious when I noticed Juno on the ENLIL Cone Model (denoted by the gray square):

[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080]

When I looked into this a little more I discovered that Juno will buzz the Earth in October- within 400 miles of your hometown! How the heck is this "halfway-to-Jupiter"?

It's all very understandable if you see the flight-path map. Juno went out to deep space past the orbit of Mars, turned around and came back towards Earth for a gravity-assist so it can speed back out to Jupiter by 2016.

Juno map:

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

It just irks me that NASA always uses misleading headlines and catch-phrases as they talk down to the public as if we're all in grade school. You all know many of these dumb headlines get repeated and distorted all over the internets and YouTube. Think...'Giant Breach in Magnetosphere' , "Cracks in Earth's Magnetic Shield", "Collapse of Earth's Upper Atmosphere", and so on. These are all important and interesting discoveries, but none of these reports are as doomy or alarming as the sensational titles imply. I conclude that NASA must be deliberately promoting fear and ignorance. I'm not sure why.....

[link to science.nasa.gov]

[link to science.nasa.gov]

[link to science.nasa.gov]

[link to science.nasa.gov]

Strange NASA/JPL Press Releases this month-

JUNO IS HALFWAY TO JUPITER:

[link to www.jpl.nasa.gov]

Well, not really, Juno is actually farther away from Jupiter than when it was launched....I'm not joking either.

I got curious when I noticed Juno on the ENLIL Cone Model (denoted by the gray square):

[link to iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080]

When I looked into this a little more I discovered that Juno will buzz the Earth in October- within 400 miles of your hometown! How the heck is this "halfway-to-Jupiter"?

It's all very understandable if you see the flight-path map. Juno went out to deep space past the orbit of Mars, turned around and came back towards Earth for a gravity-assist so it can speed back out to Jupiter by 2016.

Juno map:

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

It just irks me that NASA always uses misleading headlines and catch-phrases as they talk down to the public as if we're all in grade school. You all know many of these dumb headlines get repeated and distorted all over the internets and YouTube. Think...'Giant Breach in Magnetosphere' , "Cracks in Earth's Magnetic Shield", "Collapse of Earth's Upper Atmosphere", and so on. These are all important and interesting discoveries, but none of these reports are as doomy or alarming as the sensational titles imply. I conclude that NASA must be deliberately promoting fear and ignorance. I'm not sure why.....

[link to science.nasa.gov]

[link to science.nasa.gov]

[link to science.nasa.gov]

[link to science.nasa.gov]

Thanks again, I. One! This was the other topic I was gonna bring up, haha. NASA put out a special statement today in response to this.

NASA Voyager Statement-

August 15, 2013

A newly published paper argues that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has already entered interstellar space. The model described in the paper is new and different from other models used so far to explain the data the spacecraft has been sending back from more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from our sun. (snip)

Their model would mean that the interstellar magnetic field direction is the same as that which originates from our sun.

Other models envision the interstellar magnetic field draped around our solar bubble and predict that the direction of the interstellar magnetic field is different from the solar magnetic field inside. By that interpretation, Voyager 1 would still be inside our solar bubble.
[link to www.jpl.nasa.gov]

This sounded strangely familiar.....back in March the Voyager team issued a similar brief denial-

March 20, 2013

"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space."
[link to www.jpl.nasa.gov]

At that time, Wired did a write-up shedding some light on the controversy:

[link to www.wired.com]

I'm not sure why.....


I'm with you on this, fear and small bits of true info seem to be the course for our timeline of late?
Somethings brewing, sun fear is at an alarming rise. My colleagues, those in the business side think its an attempt by the GOP to ruin the economy. I'm a passive fellow, but I almost had to clean a clock yesterday. It seems he believes the GOP is directing all this sun doom to kill the markets, yet he completely believes we are going to die from an event. Stupidity is so frustrating, but almost comical when you've got someone fighting themselves.
Roses are red , violets are blue , I'm a schizophrenic and so am I!
Sorry for the rant

"The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space."
[link to www.jpl.nasa.gov]

At that time, Wired did a write-up shedding some light on the controversy:

[link to www.wired.com]
:IBEX ribbon:

It's good to have a nice rant now and then, LOL. Please vent to your heart's content, friend. I don't get the GOP-inspired-doom angle at all; but most folks are pre-programmed to blame Dems/GOPs or blacks/whites or the rich/the poor. It's a trademark of the Hegelian Dialectic-mind control-divide and conquer-cognitive dissonance of the One World Agenda. Most everyone else is just apathetic. Not worth getting too upset about....yet. Peace.

Apparently, there is a lot of in-fighting. So....has Elvis left the building or not?

Good morning, sol' patrol!

Starting to get a bit crunchy..

[link to www.swpc.noaa.gov]

Can someone more knowledgeable tell me what the "Dark" part of the Eve 3-day chart means? [link to lasp.colorado.edu]
It is showing a spike today and states "Warning: Dark 43.1"
Thanks in advance!

Can someone more knowledgeable tell me what the "Dark" part of the Eve 3-day chart means? [link to lasp.colorado.edu]
It is showing a spike today and states "Warning: Dark 43.1"
Thanks in advance!

This has come up before but I forgot the answer, muse1111. A little pain-staking research has given me a clearer idea, although a plain old explanation is hard to find. I'm not a huge techie, so excuse me if this in error.

The Dark Count is a sensor-calibration measurement of current (ie,voltage) and resulting thermal properties. The EVE instrument measures solar irradiance in multiple wavelengths in fine detail and has many filters and such. The dark count must be compensated for so as not to degrade the data being recorded. Here is one definition I found from Apogee Imaging which makes CCD imagers for some NASA projects-

Dark Count

Next to the quantum efficiency, resolution (number of bits) and noise figure, this is perhaps the most important CCD specification. Dark count refers to that property of all CCD sensors to generate charge in each pixel on its own with time and depending on the temperature. The lower the temperature of the sensor, the lower the dark count.
Dark count is usually expressed in electrons per unit of time at a given temperature. It can also be expressed as a current per sensor area at a given temperature. The sole reason that CCDs are cooled is to reduce the dark count effect. For example, a Kodak KAF-0402e and KAF-1602e sensor is specified to have a dark count of 50 electrons per second at 25° C. Taking a one-minute exposure at this temperature would generate 3000 electrons of thermally induced charge!

Although the dark count can be subtracted, the dark noise cannot. The dark noise is approximately the square root of the dark count. In this example, the dark noise is about 55 electrons. This could easily degrade any low-light image you attempted to capture over this period of time.

[link to www.ccd.com]

Other links of interest I found along the way....All About EVE, haha.

Very technical science paper (pdf) on the EVE sensors:
[link to www.usc.edu (secure)]

NASA Multimedia briefing guide to EVE-SDO:
[link to www.nasa.gov]

Good background article on the EVE mission;
[link to spacefellowship.com]

C1.8...

OHHHHH?