[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

[taproot]

Gen pop don't get smarter if you don't make them think. Confusion can be useful and in this case likely a good bit of medicine. Grade school education level of understanding on anything is pretty useless and implying that they cant do better insults pretty much everyone. Hence the d/v's.

[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.