What was the first man made object to leave solar system?

Not a puzzle as such, but I do hope that searching the less obvious pays dividends.

B.

It will be Voyager 1 - but it hasn't happend yet

Its well down the garden path but it hasn't got to the front gate yet

It will be Voyager 1 - but it hasn't happend yet

Hi there,

Voyager 1 is the wrong answer, one of the reasons I posted on Riddles and Brain Teasers rather than DAK is because finding out the correct answer is such fun that I don't want to give anything away.

Regards,

B.

Well, a considerable number of man-made photons have left the solar system. Not just in the modern era - even building a fire on a clear night would launch photons into space, and they will leave the solar system within hours if they don't hit anything. It's really stretching the definition to call them objects, though.

Not photons either, very inventive idea though.

I'll give it a few more days and then provide an answer.

B.

Radio waves?

Radio waves?

Nope.

I think I had best give some clues.

We are looking at something solid which was launched into space by a novel propulsion method.

Incidentally, while reading up on the subject, I found that NASA use to define space as beginning 50 miles up and anyone who has been above the 50 mile mark is allowed to use astronaut as an occupation

The definition now appear to have changed to an altitude of 100km and unsuprisingly Virgin Galactic flights are supposed to climb to 110km which makes you an astronaut if you take a ride on it.

I said it was interesting didn't I

B.

Pioneer?

Pioneer?

As I understand things, Voyager is a long way out, Pioneer 10 is out as far as Pluto and the object I'm thinking of was last seen heading straight upwards at 50km/second.

B.

I seem to recall a story (that I assumed was an urban myth) about one of the early underground nuclear tests blowing a metal access cover off into space.

In fact on searching for it I found this on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhole_cover#Propelled_into_sp...

Of Pioneer 10

Flying past Jupiter, it became the first human-made object to pass the orbit of Pluto, the most distant planet from the Sun.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2802041.stm

That'll do for me

On April 28th 2001, a Deep Space Network antenna in Madrid detected a curious radio transmission from the constellation Taurus. The feeble signal registered little more than a billionth of a trillionth of a watt -- nonetheless, it had a powerful effect on scientists.

The signal was intelligent and it came from an interstellar spacecraft about twice as far from the Sun as Pluto. It was Pioneer 10!

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/as...

Rodx,

Well done.

For those whgo have a few minutes free, this link makes excellent reading:

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20021021/manhole.shtml

I realise the question was a bit of a cheat as the chances are that the manhole lid either didn't to up very far or melted, but the story is so unusual I just had to share it with everyone.

Regards,

B.