Is Voyager 2 capable of proving the existence of Oort cloud?











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Yesterday on Dec 10 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 probe has exited the heliosphere - the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun and entered the interstellar-medium; while Voyager 1 reached the milestone back in 2012.



With Voyager 2 has better and more science instruments, however; assume it travels at a higher speed than its current speed (17km/s) and make it to the Oort cloud before the RTGs decayed (still contactable), is it capable of proving or maybe study the Oort cloud?




The Oort cloud named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, is a theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.0 to 3.2 ly).




In future exploration, it states the Voyager probes will reach the Oort cloud in about 300 years and it will take about 30,000 years to pass through it. As they are still far far away from reaching the starting point of Oort cloud, are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?










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    up vote
    7
    down vote

    favorite












    Yesterday on Dec 10 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 probe has exited the heliosphere - the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun and entered the interstellar-medium; while Voyager 1 reached the milestone back in 2012.



    With Voyager 2 has better and more science instruments, however; assume it travels at a higher speed than its current speed (17km/s) and make it to the Oort cloud before the RTGs decayed (still contactable), is it capable of proving or maybe study the Oort cloud?




    The Oort cloud named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, is a theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.0 to 3.2 ly).




    In future exploration, it states the Voyager probes will reach the Oort cloud in about 300 years and it will take about 30,000 years to pass through it. As they are still far far away from reaching the starting point of Oort cloud, are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?










    share|improve this question


























      up vote
      7
      down vote

      favorite









      up vote
      7
      down vote

      favorite











      Yesterday on Dec 10 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 probe has exited the heliosphere - the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun and entered the interstellar-medium; while Voyager 1 reached the milestone back in 2012.



      With Voyager 2 has better and more science instruments, however; assume it travels at a higher speed than its current speed (17km/s) and make it to the Oort cloud before the RTGs decayed (still contactable), is it capable of proving or maybe study the Oort cloud?




      The Oort cloud named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, is a theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.0 to 3.2 ly).




      In future exploration, it states the Voyager probes will reach the Oort cloud in about 300 years and it will take about 30,000 years to pass through it. As they are still far far away from reaching the starting point of Oort cloud, are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?










      share|improve this question















      Yesterday on Dec 10 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 probe has exited the heliosphere - the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun and entered the interstellar-medium; while Voyager 1 reached the milestone back in 2012.



      With Voyager 2 has better and more science instruments, however; assume it travels at a higher speed than its current speed (17km/s) and make it to the Oort cloud before the RTGs decayed (still contactable), is it capable of proving or maybe study the Oort cloud?




      The Oort cloud named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, is a theoretical cloud of predominantly icy planetesimals proposed to surround the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.0 to 3.2 ly).




      In future exploration, it states the Voyager probes will reach the Oort cloud in about 300 years and it will take about 30,000 years to pass through it. As they are still far far away from reaching the starting point of Oort cloud, are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?







      voyager solar-system oort-cloud






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      edited 8 hours ago

























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      Boosted Nub

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          If you placed Voyager 1 in the Oort cloud right now, it'd be difficult to contact it (but maybe not impossible). We can barely communicate with the Voyagers now at ~140 AU using a 70 m DSN antenna.
          The DSN can use the VLA (one of the largest radio telescopes on Earth), that may provide enough aperture to receive the Voyagers. Calculations later.



          Most of the instruments including all cameras on the Voyagers have been switched off. They've been frozen for decades. There is a chance they still work, but I wouldn't want to bet on it.



          Can Voyager detect Oort cloud objects? I don't know. The Oort cloud is really dark (little sunlight), which makes detecting the Oort cloud objects difficult. And the Oort could is not a dense region, so the average distance between objects is large.






          share|improve this answer























          • If we assume the closet objects of the Oort cloud at about 1000 AE we should have DSN antennas with about 500 m diameter. But the farthest objects are expected at 100,000 AE.
            – Uwe
            4 hours ago








          • 1




            I just found out the DSN can form an array with the VLA, so that gets you in the ballpark.
            – Hobbes
            4 hours ago


















          up vote
          4
          down vote













          I actually see two questions here: "Is Voyager 2 capable of proving the existence of Oort cloud?" and "Are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?"



          (Not 100% sure on these, this is my understanding so far:)



          The boundary of the Heliosphere is considered to be one of the boundaries of our solar system. The Oort cloud is already located in interstellar space. But some still define it to be part of our solar system since the cloud is still bound by the mass of our sun and planets.



          So whether you consider the Voyagers to still be within the "solar system" probably depends on how you define what's part of the system. If you go by the definition "up to and including the heliopause", then the Voyagers have left our solar system.



          As for the first question: the Voyager probes will run out of energy a long time before they reach the Oort cloud and we thus won't be able to detect them any more. They thus won't contribute to our understanding of the Oort cloud.






          share|improve this answer





















          • I made some remarkable edits. Let's assume Voyager 2 travels with a higher speed thus make it to the Oort cloud right before it runs out of energy and still contactable. How the circumstances would be?
            – Boosted Nub
            8 hours ago












          • It would require bigger and bigger antennas to receive data from the Voyagers since the signal is weak. So even if they would have power when they reach the cloud, it would be very, very hard (but AFAIK doable) to receive their signals.
            – DarkDust
            7 hours ago


















          up vote
          2
          down vote













          Assuming the voyager probes had enough power in their RTGs, had working instruments and could transmit data back to Earth it's still very unlikely they would be able to prove the existence of the Oort Cloud.



          The instruments on the spacecraft are not designed to detect Oort Cloud objects, which are theoretically small, sparse and likely to be pretty dark objects to begin with. You'd have to get pretty lucky to spot any objects at all. Even if you saw one that doesn't prove the existence of the cloud, just that there's an object out there in the area the cloud is theorized to be. To prove the existence of the cloud you'd need to spot a few objects at least, map out their composition, position and track their orbits.






          share|improve this answer





















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            3 Answers
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            3 Answers
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            up vote
            5
            down vote













            If you placed Voyager 1 in the Oort cloud right now, it'd be difficult to contact it (but maybe not impossible). We can barely communicate with the Voyagers now at ~140 AU using a 70 m DSN antenna.
            The DSN can use the VLA (one of the largest radio telescopes on Earth), that may provide enough aperture to receive the Voyagers. Calculations later.



            Most of the instruments including all cameras on the Voyagers have been switched off. They've been frozen for decades. There is a chance they still work, but I wouldn't want to bet on it.



            Can Voyager detect Oort cloud objects? I don't know. The Oort cloud is really dark (little sunlight), which makes detecting the Oort cloud objects difficult. And the Oort could is not a dense region, so the average distance between objects is large.






            share|improve this answer























            • If we assume the closet objects of the Oort cloud at about 1000 AE we should have DSN antennas with about 500 m diameter. But the farthest objects are expected at 100,000 AE.
              – Uwe
              4 hours ago








            • 1




              I just found out the DSN can form an array with the VLA, so that gets you in the ballpark.
              – Hobbes
              4 hours ago















            up vote
            5
            down vote













            If you placed Voyager 1 in the Oort cloud right now, it'd be difficult to contact it (but maybe not impossible). We can barely communicate with the Voyagers now at ~140 AU using a 70 m DSN antenna.
            The DSN can use the VLA (one of the largest radio telescopes on Earth), that may provide enough aperture to receive the Voyagers. Calculations later.



            Most of the instruments including all cameras on the Voyagers have been switched off. They've been frozen for decades. There is a chance they still work, but I wouldn't want to bet on it.



            Can Voyager detect Oort cloud objects? I don't know. The Oort cloud is really dark (little sunlight), which makes detecting the Oort cloud objects difficult. And the Oort could is not a dense region, so the average distance between objects is large.






            share|improve this answer























            • If we assume the closet objects of the Oort cloud at about 1000 AE we should have DSN antennas with about 500 m diameter. But the farthest objects are expected at 100,000 AE.
              – Uwe
              4 hours ago








            • 1




              I just found out the DSN can form an array with the VLA, so that gets you in the ballpark.
              – Hobbes
              4 hours ago













            up vote
            5
            down vote










            up vote
            5
            down vote









            If you placed Voyager 1 in the Oort cloud right now, it'd be difficult to contact it (but maybe not impossible). We can barely communicate with the Voyagers now at ~140 AU using a 70 m DSN antenna.
            The DSN can use the VLA (one of the largest radio telescopes on Earth), that may provide enough aperture to receive the Voyagers. Calculations later.



            Most of the instruments including all cameras on the Voyagers have been switched off. They've been frozen for decades. There is a chance they still work, but I wouldn't want to bet on it.



            Can Voyager detect Oort cloud objects? I don't know. The Oort cloud is really dark (little sunlight), which makes detecting the Oort cloud objects difficult. And the Oort could is not a dense region, so the average distance between objects is large.






            share|improve this answer














            If you placed Voyager 1 in the Oort cloud right now, it'd be difficult to contact it (but maybe not impossible). We can barely communicate with the Voyagers now at ~140 AU using a 70 m DSN antenna.
            The DSN can use the VLA (one of the largest radio telescopes on Earth), that may provide enough aperture to receive the Voyagers. Calculations later.



            Most of the instruments including all cameras on the Voyagers have been switched off. They've been frozen for decades. There is a chance they still work, but I wouldn't want to bet on it.



            Can Voyager detect Oort cloud objects? I don't know. The Oort cloud is really dark (little sunlight), which makes detecting the Oort cloud objects difficult. And the Oort could is not a dense region, so the average distance between objects is large.







            share|improve this answer














            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer








            edited 4 hours ago

























            answered 7 hours ago









            Hobbes

            84.7k2238383




            84.7k2238383












            • If we assume the closet objects of the Oort cloud at about 1000 AE we should have DSN antennas with about 500 m diameter. But the farthest objects are expected at 100,000 AE.
              – Uwe
              4 hours ago








            • 1




              I just found out the DSN can form an array with the VLA, so that gets you in the ballpark.
              – Hobbes
              4 hours ago


















            • If we assume the closet objects of the Oort cloud at about 1000 AE we should have DSN antennas with about 500 m diameter. But the farthest objects are expected at 100,000 AE.
              – Uwe
              4 hours ago








            • 1




              I just found out the DSN can form an array with the VLA, so that gets you in the ballpark.
              – Hobbes
              4 hours ago
















            If we assume the closet objects of the Oort cloud at about 1000 AE we should have DSN antennas with about 500 m diameter. But the farthest objects are expected at 100,000 AE.
            – Uwe
            4 hours ago






            If we assume the closet objects of the Oort cloud at about 1000 AE we should have DSN antennas with about 500 m diameter. But the farthest objects are expected at 100,000 AE.
            – Uwe
            4 hours ago






            1




            1




            I just found out the DSN can form an array with the VLA, so that gets you in the ballpark.
            – Hobbes
            4 hours ago




            I just found out the DSN can form an array with the VLA, so that gets you in the ballpark.
            – Hobbes
            4 hours ago










            up vote
            4
            down vote













            I actually see two questions here: "Is Voyager 2 capable of proving the existence of Oort cloud?" and "Are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?"



            (Not 100% sure on these, this is my understanding so far:)



            The boundary of the Heliosphere is considered to be one of the boundaries of our solar system. The Oort cloud is already located in interstellar space. But some still define it to be part of our solar system since the cloud is still bound by the mass of our sun and planets.



            So whether you consider the Voyagers to still be within the "solar system" probably depends on how you define what's part of the system. If you go by the definition "up to and including the heliopause", then the Voyagers have left our solar system.



            As for the first question: the Voyager probes will run out of energy a long time before they reach the Oort cloud and we thus won't be able to detect them any more. They thus won't contribute to our understanding of the Oort cloud.






            share|improve this answer





















            • I made some remarkable edits. Let's assume Voyager 2 travels with a higher speed thus make it to the Oort cloud right before it runs out of energy and still contactable. How the circumstances would be?
              – Boosted Nub
              8 hours ago












            • It would require bigger and bigger antennas to receive data from the Voyagers since the signal is weak. So even if they would have power when they reach the cloud, it would be very, very hard (but AFAIK doable) to receive their signals.
              – DarkDust
              7 hours ago















            up vote
            4
            down vote













            I actually see two questions here: "Is Voyager 2 capable of proving the existence of Oort cloud?" and "Are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?"



            (Not 100% sure on these, this is my understanding so far:)



            The boundary of the Heliosphere is considered to be one of the boundaries of our solar system. The Oort cloud is already located in interstellar space. But some still define it to be part of our solar system since the cloud is still bound by the mass of our sun and planets.



            So whether you consider the Voyagers to still be within the "solar system" probably depends on how you define what's part of the system. If you go by the definition "up to and including the heliopause", then the Voyagers have left our solar system.



            As for the first question: the Voyager probes will run out of energy a long time before they reach the Oort cloud and we thus won't be able to detect them any more. They thus won't contribute to our understanding of the Oort cloud.






            share|improve this answer





















            • I made some remarkable edits. Let's assume Voyager 2 travels with a higher speed thus make it to the Oort cloud right before it runs out of energy and still contactable. How the circumstances would be?
              – Boosted Nub
              8 hours ago












            • It would require bigger and bigger antennas to receive data from the Voyagers since the signal is weak. So even if they would have power when they reach the cloud, it would be very, very hard (but AFAIK doable) to receive their signals.
              – DarkDust
              7 hours ago













            up vote
            4
            down vote










            up vote
            4
            down vote









            I actually see two questions here: "Is Voyager 2 capable of proving the existence of Oort cloud?" and "Are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?"



            (Not 100% sure on these, this is my understanding so far:)



            The boundary of the Heliosphere is considered to be one of the boundaries of our solar system. The Oort cloud is already located in interstellar space. But some still define it to be part of our solar system since the cloud is still bound by the mass of our sun and planets.



            So whether you consider the Voyagers to still be within the "solar system" probably depends on how you define what's part of the system. If you go by the definition "up to and including the heliopause", then the Voyagers have left our solar system.



            As for the first question: the Voyager probes will run out of energy a long time before they reach the Oort cloud and we thus won't be able to detect them any more. They thus won't contribute to our understanding of the Oort cloud.






            share|improve this answer












            I actually see two questions here: "Is Voyager 2 capable of proving the existence of Oort cloud?" and "Are the Voyager probes still considered within The Solar System?"



            (Not 100% sure on these, this is my understanding so far:)



            The boundary of the Heliosphere is considered to be one of the boundaries of our solar system. The Oort cloud is already located in interstellar space. But some still define it to be part of our solar system since the cloud is still bound by the mass of our sun and planets.



            So whether you consider the Voyagers to still be within the "solar system" probably depends on how you define what's part of the system. If you go by the definition "up to and including the heliopause", then the Voyagers have left our solar system.



            As for the first question: the Voyager probes will run out of energy a long time before they reach the Oort cloud and we thus won't be able to detect them any more. They thus won't contribute to our understanding of the Oort cloud.







            share|improve this answer












            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer










            answered 8 hours ago









            DarkDust

            5,83022448




            5,83022448












            • I made some remarkable edits. Let's assume Voyager 2 travels with a higher speed thus make it to the Oort cloud right before it runs out of energy and still contactable. How the circumstances would be?
              – Boosted Nub
              8 hours ago












            • It would require bigger and bigger antennas to receive data from the Voyagers since the signal is weak. So even if they would have power when they reach the cloud, it would be very, very hard (but AFAIK doable) to receive their signals.
              – DarkDust
              7 hours ago


















            • I made some remarkable edits. Let's assume Voyager 2 travels with a higher speed thus make it to the Oort cloud right before it runs out of energy and still contactable. How the circumstances would be?
              – Boosted Nub
              8 hours ago












            • It would require bigger and bigger antennas to receive data from the Voyagers since the signal is weak. So even if they would have power when they reach the cloud, it would be very, very hard (but AFAIK doable) to receive their signals.
              – DarkDust
              7 hours ago
















            I made some remarkable edits. Let's assume Voyager 2 travels with a higher speed thus make it to the Oort cloud right before it runs out of energy and still contactable. How the circumstances would be?
            – Boosted Nub
            8 hours ago






            I made some remarkable edits. Let's assume Voyager 2 travels with a higher speed thus make it to the Oort cloud right before it runs out of energy and still contactable. How the circumstances would be?
            – Boosted Nub
            8 hours ago














            It would require bigger and bigger antennas to receive data from the Voyagers since the signal is weak. So even if they would have power when they reach the cloud, it would be very, very hard (but AFAIK doable) to receive their signals.
            – DarkDust
            7 hours ago




            It would require bigger and bigger antennas to receive data from the Voyagers since the signal is weak. So even if they would have power when they reach the cloud, it would be very, very hard (but AFAIK doable) to receive their signals.
            – DarkDust
            7 hours ago










            up vote
            2
            down vote













            Assuming the voyager probes had enough power in their RTGs, had working instruments and could transmit data back to Earth it's still very unlikely they would be able to prove the existence of the Oort Cloud.



            The instruments on the spacecraft are not designed to detect Oort Cloud objects, which are theoretically small, sparse and likely to be pretty dark objects to begin with. You'd have to get pretty lucky to spot any objects at all. Even if you saw one that doesn't prove the existence of the cloud, just that there's an object out there in the area the cloud is theorized to be. To prove the existence of the cloud you'd need to spot a few objects at least, map out their composition, position and track their orbits.






            share|improve this answer

























              up vote
              2
              down vote













              Assuming the voyager probes had enough power in their RTGs, had working instruments and could transmit data back to Earth it's still very unlikely they would be able to prove the existence of the Oort Cloud.



              The instruments on the spacecraft are not designed to detect Oort Cloud objects, which are theoretically small, sparse and likely to be pretty dark objects to begin with. You'd have to get pretty lucky to spot any objects at all. Even if you saw one that doesn't prove the existence of the cloud, just that there's an object out there in the area the cloud is theorized to be. To prove the existence of the cloud you'd need to spot a few objects at least, map out their composition, position and track their orbits.






              share|improve this answer























                up vote
                2
                down vote










                up vote
                2
                down vote









                Assuming the voyager probes had enough power in their RTGs, had working instruments and could transmit data back to Earth it's still very unlikely they would be able to prove the existence of the Oort Cloud.



                The instruments on the spacecraft are not designed to detect Oort Cloud objects, which are theoretically small, sparse and likely to be pretty dark objects to begin with. You'd have to get pretty lucky to spot any objects at all. Even if you saw one that doesn't prove the existence of the cloud, just that there's an object out there in the area the cloud is theorized to be. To prove the existence of the cloud you'd need to spot a few objects at least, map out their composition, position and track their orbits.






                share|improve this answer












                Assuming the voyager probes had enough power in their RTGs, had working instruments and could transmit data back to Earth it's still very unlikely they would be able to prove the existence of the Oort Cloud.



                The instruments on the spacecraft are not designed to detect Oort Cloud objects, which are theoretically small, sparse and likely to be pretty dark objects to begin with. You'd have to get pretty lucky to spot any objects at all. Even if you saw one that doesn't prove the existence of the cloud, just that there's an object out there in the area the cloud is theorized to be. To prove the existence of the cloud you'd need to spot a few objects at least, map out their composition, position and track their orbits.







                share|improve this answer












                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer










                answered 2 hours ago









                GdD

                9,15022942




                9,15022942






























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