1189: Voyager 1

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Voyager 1

Title text: So far Voyager 1 has 'left the Solar System' by passing through the termination shock three times, the heliopause twice, and once each through the heliosheath, heliosphere, heliodrome, auroral discontinuity, Heaviside layer, trans-Neptunian panic zone, magnetogap, US Census Bureau Solar System statistical boundary, Kuiper gauntlet, Oort void, and crystal sphere holding the fixed stars.

Explanation

Voyager 1 is a U.S. space probe launched in 1977 to study the outer reaches of the Solar System and beyond. Perhaps these marks are related to a fantastic race "Silence" from the British sci-fi series "Doctor Who." These creatures have the property that people who saw them forget about it when they turns away. Characters of the series made ​​such marks on their hands to count how many creatures they saw.

Transcript

Number of times Voyager 1 has left the Solar System

[22 tally marks.]

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Discussion

Uh, not all tally marks are Doctor Who references. Alpha (talk) 05:49, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Is it just me, or is Randall getting lazy? Most of the past comics have been simplistic, easy-to-draw charts. {{unsigned|98.172.117.132}

It's a stick figure comic, how could it be more lazy than it already is? (Not a bad thing) HelloWorld (talk) 11:14, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

Having just come from the future, we can now surmise that he was prepping for the epic, month-long-and-running sandcastle comic that started in the strip after this one. Echo Seven (talk) 03:59, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

Oh, was he talking about the glove? I though it was referring to "running the gauntlet" for some reason. --123.243.217.72 07:17, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

No, that's "running the gantlet." Two words which are often confused for each other. Plus you could run a gantlet of people whacking you with their gauntlets. 63.241.174.129 13:21, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

"Running the gantlet" and "running the gauntlet" are both acceptable uses, since both gantlet and gauntlet can be used for the punishment (however, "dropping the gantlet" would be incorrect, since gantlet only refers to the punishment, while gauntlet can refer to both the punishment and the glove). 72.178.88.37 01:30, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

He almost certainly meant 'gantlet'; I think Randall just got the two words confused (it happens frequently. At this point, dictionary.com lists both spellings as synonymous.) The medieval punishment makes much more sense in context (ie: lots of things that could potentially hit Voyageur.)24.70.188.179 13:31, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Well, I saw a straight wordplay belt→glove there. --Mormegil (talk) 14:21, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Gauntlet and gantlet are both fitting and humorous in the context. Homophones are great. 98.240.130.17 17:41, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

There were several stories two days ago saying it had left, then a correction from NASA saying it didn't. http://science.time.com/2013/03/20/humanity-leaves-the-solar-system-35-years-later-voyager-offically-exits-the-heliosphere/ http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416867,00.asp http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20130320.html Bugefun (talk) 07:21, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Is it just me or is it unclear why are there sixteen leaving events described in the title text but twenty-two tally marks on the comic? 188.221.199.135 07:39, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

I just keep hoping that my children will be interested in space. Too late for me, NASA wouldn't want me, but surely my genes are still ok, I hope. To follow voyager down the rabbit hole of our expectations, what else can father ever ask? 166.147.120.177 08:05, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

No it is not just you why there are 22 tick marks, and only 16 countable exits.192.231.124.16 12:03, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

The Crystal Sphere may refer to a David Brin story used to explain the fermi paradox of why we have had no alien contact: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Spheres Schmammel (talk) 14:37, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Crystal Sphere could also be a reference to the old Spelljammer D&D setting where systems/galaxies were contained in crystal spheres. 146.146.7.2

Which in turn is a reference to (well, really, direct borrowing from) the Ptolemaic astronomical concept, so it still comes back to the same thing. 129.176.151.14 13:30, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

"US Census Bureau Solar System statistical boundary – a fictive boundary defined by": I'm capable of reading 'fictive' as 'conventional' in this sentence; as in "the real census bureau really invented it, like they really invented census areas". I would not have been confused by 'fictional', or by 'a boundary fictively invented', but I'm not sure that the second one is good English. I may have studied too much sociology. 121.73.5.66 07:38, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

"Magnetogap" is probably wordplay on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetopause -- 194.176.203.76 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Big news today (September 12, 2013), as Voyager 1 leaves the solar system. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/science/in-a-breathtaking-first-nasa-craft-exits-the-solar-system.html and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24026153 Porkypine (talk) 19:47, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

I have seen this statements at NASA too, but now it's just "Voyager Embarks on Journey Into Interstellar Space" and "NASA Spacecraft Embarks on Historic Journey Into Interstellar Space". So, this is just the next marker for this comic. Randall should do an update. There is simply NO defined border, it's just an other media hype. Look at nasawatch.com for the Randall like critical statements. Correct is: Voyager is leaving out solar system. But objects surrounding our sun, like Sedna are much farther outside. It's just a hype, this comic definitively needs an update by Randall.--Dgbrt (talk) 20:53, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

It appears this comic may become relevant again, if these guys are correct. It's supposed to have crossed the current sheet late last year, so we may find out soon if Voyager is still here. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/2014GL060781/asset/grl51945.pdf?v=1&t=imnldq4k&s=3e62d6267158bfc259d6b16de42ab4c2d942b900 162.158.146.247 15:45, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Fixed some typos/grammar and modified the logic of the bullets (a bullet for "real" boundaries, followed by "the rest" - including two real boundaries - didn't make any sense to me).Xseo (talk) 19:02, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Realised "Fictive" is a real word, feel free to change it back, using fictional makes more sense to me as a natural English speaker though. Xseo (talk) 19:04, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps changing the kuiper belt to a gauntlet is related to Thor's items, which are a hammer, a belt, and gauntlets? 141.101.104.134 18:37, 28 April 2022 (UTC)