Voyager 1 hears the hush of interstellar plasma

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?

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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.

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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].

[1] https://esahubble.org/images/opo0204i/

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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.

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