←back to thread

NASA's Voyager Found a 30k-50k Kelvin "Wall" at the Edge of Solar System

(www.iflscience.com)
246 points world2vec | 2 comments | 23 Jun 25 16:24 UTC | HN request time: 0.413s | source
Show context
whycome ◴[23 Jun 25 20:29 UTC] No.44359754[source]▶
30K to 50K K? K. It’s not clear what the range represents. Were they polling and those are max and min values they got? Was that their range of uncertainty because it’s hard to accurately measure there?

Also, I hate the ambiguity of a title that references “Voyager Spacecraft” so it’s unclear if it was one or both.

replies(2): >>44359815 #>>44360292 #
1. Karawebnetwork ◴[23 Jun 25 21:24 UTC] No.44360292[source]▶
First paragraph of the article:

"In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager probes to study the Solar System's edge, and the interstellar medium between the stars. One by one, they both hit the "wall of fire" at the boundaries of our home system, measuring temperatures of 30,000-50,000 kelvin (54,000-90,000 degrees Fahrenheit) on their passage through it."

replies(1): >>44360411 #
2. whycome ◴[23 Jun 25 21:37 UTC] No.44360411[source]▶
That paragraph is the problem. It doesn't actually explain it. Were they continuously polling temps and reached as low as 30K and as high as 50K? If the 'wall of fire' is based on temps, did they have a continuous rise? what was the temp just outside the 'wall'?