Re:Voyager 1 hears the hush of interstellar plasma
by f6v on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @11:43AM
(#27119494)
Oort cloud is still not confirmed, right? I get that it might be incredibly sparse, but isn't there anything to study there?
Re:Voyager 1 hears the hush of interstellar plasma
by dredmorbius on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @12:48PM
(#27120365)
Oort is (mostly) in the solar plane AFAIU, and there's every reason to use gravity assist to get there. I don't know that any specific objects are known, and getting into an Oort-observing orbit might be challenging. Otherwise, yesm it's sparse and arbitrary flybys would likely miss anything interesting.
Spraying random probes in all directions makes lttle sense.
Voyager 1 won't reach the Oort Cloud, if it in fact exists, for another three centuries.
Re:Voyager 1 hears the hush of interstellar plasma
by Beldin on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @02:16AM
(#27127237)
I think you're mixing up the Kuiper Belt with the Oort Cloud. Kuiper Belt is in the plane, and within the Oort cloud. Oort cloud is a sphere.
At least, according to ESA [1].
Re:Voyager 1 hears the hush of interstellar plasma
by dredmorbius on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @07:46AM
(#27129173)
Hence my hedge, mostly.
Though this is well outside my area of expertise.
It makes more sense, generally, to send probes to where things (planets, moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets) are, that we can reach in reasonable time (years, possibly a decade or more for outer targets).
"Every direction" just takes you to deep space. And that's not going to be particularly illuminating, though a few such probes (say, a high- or low-solar plane one) might be interesting.