[sami36]

No kidding, That's about the 6th time I've read about it these last two years. WHY doesn't NASA begin by establishing WHAT is it exactly that makes a solar system official "boundary" before producing press releases every time they find something interesting in the readings sent to them by Voyager.

ADDENDUM : Ahem, Thanks for the downvotes, but the inner workings of space discovery are not the subject of my comment. As an engineer, I'm more than mindful of the back & forth & general messiness of discovery, peer-reviews, control groups, & the like. I'm talking about press releases & headlines targeted towards the GENERAL PUBLIC. A public that has a lot less of an appetite, patience or time to follow NASA's inner deliberations or the intricacies of the scientific method. The fact that this is the 5th or sixth time that they've heard that "Voyager has left the solar system" might leave them a little bit confused.

[breadbox]

Uhh ... that's exactly what they are doing: attempting to establish what the boundary even looks like. We thought we knew what the boundary would look like (even though we have never been there before). It turned out we were wrong. In science, that's good thing.

Some people may not want to hear anything until the science is over, but I think a lot of us actually enjoy being on the inside of the scientific process for a change.

[bbatsell]

Yes, NASA released research and related press releases in the past corresponding to new, unexpected data from Voyager that led to "[discovery of] a new region of the heliosphere that we had not realized was there" as well as "[leaving] researchers without a working model for the outer Solar System." [0]

Heaven forbid NASA do something as inconvenient as sending out a press release about its copious new discoveries in our solar system.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Heliopause

[ianstallings]

This is about confirming that their detection of the heliopause was in fact correct. Also, new data.

From the article: Voyager 1 does not have a working plasma sensor, so scientists needed a different way to measure the spacecraft's plasma environment to make a definitive determination of its location. A coronal mass ejection, or a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields, that erupted from the sun in March 2012 provided scientists the data they needed. When this unexpected gift from the sun eventually arrived at Voyager 1's location 13 months later, in April 2013, the plasma around the spacecraft began to vibrate like a violin string. On April 9, Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument detected the movement. The pitch of the oscillations helped scientists determine the density of the plasma. The particular oscillations meant the spacecraft was bathed in plasma more than 40 times denser than what they had encountered in the outer layer of the heliosphere. Density of this sort is to be expected in interstellar space.

[dragonwriter]

> WHY doesn't NASA begin by establishing WHAT is it exactly that makes a solar system official "boundary" before producing press releases every time they find something interesting in the readings sent to them by Voyager.

Because discovering new things is actually more important than drawing arbitrary lines.

[sami36]

the inner workings of space discovery are not the subject being discussed here. As an engineer, I'm more than mindful of the back & forth & general messiness of discovery, peer-reviews, control groups, & the like. I'm talking about press releases & headlines targeted towards the GENERAL PUBLIC. A public that has a lot less of an appetite, patience or time to follow NASA's inner deliberations. The fact that this is the 5th or sixth time that they've heard that "Voyager has left the solar system" might leave them a little bit confused.

[jlgreco]

The general public is footing the bill, there is nothing wrong with giving the general public some periodic status updates. This could really only get confusing if you read no further than the headlines.

[sami36]

"...if you read no further than the headlines."

That's the definition of how the general public interacts with a piece of news.

[jlgreco]

People who read no further than headlines will have trouble regardless. The solution to that is not "release fewer press releases so that people have fewer opportunities to be confused".

[sami36]

Now, you're just being argumentative for argumentation sake. I'm done

[noselasd]

> that they've heard that "Voyager has left the solar system"

But NASA hasn't said so before, and hasn't released a press release saying so before - why do you blame them for the headlines general media ?

(and if you read this press release it's about Voyager entering interstellar space, not leaving the solar system)

[scott_s]

It's also the least interesting thing to say on this topic, because it comes up every time there's an item related to Voyager.

[erichurkman]

Part of NASA's job is to generate excitement and interest in the sciences and exploration in general, as well as to Congress who can dictate NASA's budget on a whim. Unfortunately, when they talk to the media that Voyager appears to have "left" the solar system, the general media misinterpret things and ignore some of the scientific process behind it -- the same phenomenon leads to headlines about 'X cures cancer!'.

Through this semi-public process, NASA has given the public exposure to the amazing Voyager mission that's been running for longer than many Americans have even been alive, and opened public discussion and amazement for several successive years.

I only hope there are classrooms with students eagerly plotting the trajectory of Voyager or any other missions on graph paper, sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the next set of data to be released by NASA. Every new bit of information can open an entirely new topic to their minds, a new topic for them to dig into every public resource, article, and book they can get their hands on. (That was me, some years ago, but I digress.)

[biot]

What do you suggest? Should they have launched a probe to discover what features to expect at the edge of the solar system? I know you're entitled to 100% accurate info, dammit, but perhaps a refresher on how the scientific method works would be helpful.