Dear MEL Topic Readers,
What Voyager 2 has learned since entering
interstellar space
The Voyager program is NASA’s outer planets
and interstellar probe program using two probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, that
were launched in 1977. Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980. Voyager
2 did so in 1979 and 1981, passed Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. In 2012,
Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to cross into interstellar space having
passed the heliopause, a boundary where the hot solar wind meets cold interstellar
space and so did Voyager 2 in 2018. The newly obtained data showed that the
heliopause is more distinct than previously thought. It is amazing to get
information sent from over the 40-year old probe from over 16 billion kilometers
from the sun. In fact, it takes over 16 hours to for the sent data to reach Earth.
So far so great. However, as the probes fly longer, the power reserves deplete.
Their key devices need to be heated to be functional and the antennas must point
directly to Earth, both of which require careful management and adjustment. The
program keeps going as long as the probes are functional and communicative.
Now, both probes are still flying with a speed
of 17 kilometers per second in outer space. They may reach another solar system
in 40,000 years. Very long journeys indeed. Will they ever meet other
intelligence?
Enjoy reading the article and learn what
40-year old probes are doing in interstellar space.
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