[X] My Assistant

[dilo]

Nobody highlighted this and I didn't find any comment from Nasa/Voyager sites.
On August,11 the intrepid Voyager-1 probe will reach 14.960 billion Km from the Sun, one hundred times the average Earth-Sun distance!
This event will be followed, after 16 days, by the 100AU from Earth reach.
From astrophysical standpoint, first event is the most important but, I think, most people will be emotionally hit from the second one.
So I would like to start a poll on this.

[mimile]

That is a very late answer for V1 (and quite early for V2) : I'll propose neither 100 AU from the Sun, nor 100 AU from the Earth, but 100 AU from the Solar System center of gravity. After all, the Voyager's trajectories are simpler when expressed from the center of gravity, now that they are so far away from the major planets.

In practice, this will seldom change the date by more than a fraction of one day (the maximum effect from Jupiter is about half a day).

[centsworth_II]

... 100 AU from the Solar System center of gravity....

How far from the sun can this get?

In the study of the heliosphere and heliopause, it makes sense to reference the distance of the craft from the sun. Maybe in studies of the "Pioneer anomaly" the craft distance from the solar system center of gravity would be the best reference. If the only science coming from Voyager involves the heliosphere, the best reference would be from the sun. IMHO