Cosmic Kerfuffle! So where DOES our Solar System end? :)

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szh
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http://science.time.com/2013/03/21/wher ... stem-ends/

Voyager 1 has left our system ... or has it?

An interesting article on the boundaries of what we define as the Solar System. :yesnod

Z


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Ace2cool
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I've seen articles about it leaving into interstellar space something like 5 times now.

What I've been wondering recently is how we account for our own system's movement. Surely we're accounting for the direction that our own solar system is traveling, but at the same time, how would you quantify that? I know we can use reference data from other points in the galaxy, but how do we tell exactly where they are, and how fast they're moving, if there is no guaranteed set reference point, especially if we're (Earth) moving so fast by comparison?

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alms24sebring
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Last I heard, it was believed to have passed the barrier (heliopause?), or atleast at the very end of it based on solar wind and radiation readings. But, it just needs to hurry up already and be over with it lol. Its only been flying for the last 35 years.

^ It really just takes time to see where other stars are moving in relation to us just by taking pictures every few months. Also some gross math and computer simulations of their trajectories, past and future. I dont think the Earth itself moves very fast compared to other cosmic speeds. Not only that but our orbits' circumference isnt really big to obscure our own reference point to others. Im assuming that seeing the way other stars close by move and gravity, we can find our own stars path through the galaxy as it rotates.


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