[NASA] Voyager

NASA Probe Enters Unexplored 'Cosmic Purgatory' at Solar System's Edge

After more than 30 years of traveling through the cosmos, a far-flung NASA spacecraft has entered an uncharted region between our solar system and interstellar space, scientists announced today (Dec. 5).

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from the sun, and data collected from the steadfast probe indicate that it has crossed into new territory that scientists are calling the "stagnation region."

In this expanse, the flow of solar wind, which consists of charged particles that stream from the sun, has calmed down, our solar system's magnetic field appears to be compressed, and high-energy particles from inside the solar system seem to be leaking out into interstellar space. This transition zone is thought to be like a "cosmic purgatory," the astronomers said.

"Voyager tells us now that we're in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around our solar system," Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back. We shouldn't have long to wait to find out what the space between stars is really like." [Photos from NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 Probes]

The latest results from the Voyager mission were presented today at the 2011 American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco.

Journey to the edge of the solar system

The Voyager 1 probe is currently the farthest manmade object from Earth, but has not yet reached interstellar space, Stone said.

Data received from the probe indicate that it is still within the so-called heliosphere, which is a large bubble of solar plasma and solar magnetic fields that the sun blows around itself. At the perimeter of the heliosphere is the heliosheath, a turbulent region at the outer edge of the solar system.

At the edge of the heliosheath is the heliopause, a demarcation line that bounds our solar system from interstellar space. Voyager 1 covers about 330 million miles (531 million km) every year, and scientists predict that it could cross the heliopause soon — within a few months to a few years. But the precise moment when this will happen is difficult to pin down.

"I can almost assure you that we will be confused when it first happens," Stone said during a news conference today. "This will undoubtedly not be simple. Nature tends to be much more creative than our own minds."

Part of the uncertainty comes from the fact that there are still many unknowns about the characteristics of these regions at the edge of the solar system. For instance, the thicknesses of the stagnation region and the heliopause remain a mystery.

"Newton tells us the spacecraft will reach interstellar space," Stone said. "The question is, will we still be transmitting when that happens? No spacecraft has ever been there before. We continue to find our models need to be improved as we learn more about the complex interaction between solar wind and interstellar wind. The transition may not be instantaneous. There may be a turbulent interface, [and it] may take us months to get through a rather messy interface between these two winds."

Breaking new ground

In April 2010, scientists reported that the outward speed of solar wind had diminished to zero, which indicated the start of the new region. To follow up these observations, mission managers rolled Voyager 1 four times this spring and summer to investigate whether the solar wind was blowing strongly in another direction. [Voyager: Humanity's Farthest Journey ]

What the researchers found was that Voyager 1 is journeying through space in a region similar to the doldrums in Earth's seas, where there is very little wind.

Over the past year, instruments onboard Voyager 1 also found that the intensity of the solar magnetic field in the stagnation region had doubled. This increase demonstrates that inward pressure from interstellar space is causing it to compress.

"Once the wind slows down, the [magnetic] field lines get compressed and field intensity goes up," Stone explained. "That's precisely what we've seen now in the last year. Today, it's about twice what it had been for the previous four years."

As it journeys toward interstellar space, Voyager 1 has been measuring energetic particles that originate from inside and outside our solar system. Until mid-2010, the intensity of particles originating from inside the solar system had been holding steady, the scientists said.

During the past year, the abundance of these energetic particles has been in decline, reaching a point now that is half what it was throughout the previous five years. This leads the researchers to think the high-energy particles are seeping into interstellar space.

While this is going on, Voyager is also detecting a sharp increase in the intensity of cosmic rays from elsewhere in the galaxy, penetrating into the solar system from outside. This is yet another sign that the spacecraft is approaching the boundary of interstellar space.

"We've been using the flow of energetic particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to estimate the solar wind velocity," Rob Decker, a co-investigator on Voyager's Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., said in a statement. "We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically. For the first time, the wind even blows back at us. We are evidently traveling in completely new territory. Scientists had suggested previously that there might be a stagnation layer, but we weren't sure it existed until now."

An ongoing voyage

NASA launched Voyager 1 along with its sister Voyager 2 in 1977 to study the outer planets of the solar system. Voyager 2 is trailing its twin counterpart, and is currently 9 billion miles (15 billion km) away from the sun. [Our Solar System: A Photo Tour of the Planets]

The instruments aboard the Voyagers are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which convert the heat from plutonium's radioactive decay into electricity. The spacecraft have enough fuel to keep the instruments running until at least 2020, Stone said.

Though no one knows exactly what they will find, scientists are hoping that the Voyager probes continue to reveal exciting new discoveries about the solar system and beyond as they continue their cosmic cruise.

Until then, scientists are eagerly awaiting the next breakthrough.

"For me, it's been constant entertainment," said Eugene Parker, a professor emeritus in the department of physics at the University of Chicago. "I hold my breath as to what's going to happen next."

And for a mission that has been going strong for 34 years, astronomers have come to expect the unexpected.

"I think the entire science team — none of us could have imagined the wealth of discovery that continues today," Stone said. "No doubt there's still a lot of discovery left, and that's what science is all about."

Read the original article at: https://news.yahoo.com/nasa-probe-enters-unexplored-cosmic-purgatory-solar-systems-200210807.html

NASA reported its Voyager 1 spacecraft was sending strange data back to Earth in May.

The glitch is ongoing and might be due to the spacecraft's age or location in interstellar space.

Engineers are looking through decades-old manuals to debug it.

In May, NASA scientists said the Voyager 1 spacecraft was sending back inaccurate data from its attitude-control system. The mysterious glitch is still ongoing, according to the mission's engineering team. Now, in order to find a fix, engineers are digging through decades-old manuals.

Voyager 1, along with its twin Voyager 2, launched in 1977 with a design lifetime of five (5) years to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their respective moons up close.

After nearly 45 years in space, both spacecraft are still functioning. In 2012, Voyager 1 became the very first human-made object to venture beyond the boundary of our sun's influence, known as the heliopause, and into interstellar space. It's now around 14.5 billion miles from Earth and sending data back from beyond the solar system.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasas-voyager-1-70s-glitching-125100461.html

NASA's Voyager spacecraft carry golden records loaded with music and photos, to explain our world to aliens




- NASA's been slowly shutting down non-essential instruments on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft to save power. Read more at
https://www.businessinsider.com/voyager-nasa-probe-shut-down-launched-1977-record-breaking-2022-6?

- Aboard each spacecraft is a golden record, with images, sounds, greetings, and music from Earth.

- The twin probes launched in 1977, on a grand tour of the solar system and interstellar space.

When Voyager 1 and 2 launched into space in 1977, each carried on board a golden record — an interstellar collection of human sounds and images meant to represent life on Earth for any alien civilization that might come across it.

Over the decades, the twin probes hurtled through space at a rate of 35,000 miles per hour, sending back detailed views of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their moons. After completing grand tours of our solar system, Voyager 1 and 2 entered interstellar space in 2012 and 2018, respectively. That makes them the most distant human-made objects from Earth.

Mounted on the outside of each spacecraft is an identical gold-plated copper record protected by an aluminum case that, if discovered by aliens, represents humanity. As NASA puts it, the records 'communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials'.

In order to illustrate life on Earth to any aliens that come across it, the golden records contain instructions — using the universal language of math and science we would expect extraterrestrials to have in common with us — on how to extract a trove of sounds, music, images, and diagrams showing human anatomy and humanity's location in the galaxy."

Read the full article: https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasas-voyager-spacecraft-carry-golden-133100661.html

Ancientzen wrote:
NASA Woke Up Voyager 1 From 13 Billion Miles Away, And The Spacecraft Actually Back
*by Admin October 29, 2022

After 37 years of being inactive, the Voyager 1 spacecraft was contacted by the space agency so that its thrusters could be turned on for a short time.

Voyager 1 was sent out into space all the way back in 1977 to look at the edges of our solar system. It talks to NASA’s Deep Space Network every so often to get routine commands and send data back. But on November 28, NASA had to talk to the spacecraft and use micro thrusters that hadn’t been used since 1980 to make a small course correction.

“With these thrusters, which are still working after 37 years of not being used, we will be able to add two to three years to the life of the Voyager 1 spacecraft,” said project manager Suzanne Dodd in a statement.

Scientists have been noticing since 2014 that the spacecraft’s main systems for moving forward are getting worse over time. Instead, they decided to move the probe by using the backup trajectory correction thrusters, which hadn’t been used in decades. The tests went well, but because the spacecraft is so far away from Earth, the team didn’t find out until 19 hours later.

But even if Plan B is only used for a few more years, Voyager will be able to send us important information we’ve never seen before from deep space between our star and the one closest to it. It’s the farthest probe we have, so scientists are very excited to see what it finds.

Read the original article at: https://theancientzen.com/nasa-woke-up-voyager-1-from-13-billion-miles-away-and-the-spacecraft-actually-signalled-back/

Voyager 2 has been in space for 45 years. NASA just found a way to keep it alive for another 3, despite it being 12 billion miles from Earth.

*by Marianne Guenot Apr 28, 2023, 5:57 AM CDT

Voyager 2's demise has been postponed after NASA found a way to hack a backup source of power to keep the probe going until 2026.

Voyager 1 and 2 have provided crucial scientific information in their 45 years of spaceflight.

Today, the probes are traveling in interstellar space, 12 and 14 billion miles away from Earth. That's further than any spacecraft or human-made object has gone before.

"The science data that the Voyagers are returning gets more valuable the farther away from the sun they go," said Linda Spilker, Voyager's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

"We are definitely interested in keeping as many science instruments operating as long as possible."

The probes are powered by generators that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. As this energy source becomes weaker, NASA engineers have had to shut down non-essential instruments, like the probes' cameras and heaters, to conserve power.

But as Voyager 2 was entering its last energy reserves, NASA engineers came up with a clever hack that would allow it to stay alive a little longer.

They found a way to divert power from a safety mechanism designed to turn on if the probes' circuit malfunctions because of voltage variations.

"Variable voltages pose a risk to the instruments, but we've determined that it's a small risk, and the alternative offers a big reward of being able to keep the science instruments turned on longer," said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager's project manager at JPL, said in a press release.

"We've been monitoring the spacecraft for a few weeks, and it seems like this new approach is working."

NASA has hacked a backup source of power to keep Voyager 2 working. The switch should keep the probe, which launched in 1977, alive for another three years. Together, Voyager 1 and 2 have traveled further than any other spacecraft.

Voyager 2's demise has been postponed after NASA found a way to hack a backup source of power to keep the probe going until 2026.

Voyager 1 and 2 have provided crucial scientific information in their 45 years of spaceflight.

Today, the probes are traveling in interstellar space, 12 and 14 billion miles away from Earth. That's further than any spacecraft or human-made object has gone before.

"The science data that the Voyagers are returning gets more valuable the farther away from the sun they go," said Linda Spilker, Voyager's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

"We are definitely interested in keeping as many science instruments operating as long as possible."
The probes have been traveling for 45 years.

Voyager 1 and 2 set off a month apart in 1977. The probes were initially meant to set off on a four-year mission to sail past Saturn and Jupiter. They were launched with a "golden record" with information that would provide aliens with information about the Earth.

But the probes kept exceeding expectations, and NASA has continually extended their missions, first to visit Neptune and Uranus, then to sail further than any other probe: past the heliosphere. The heliosphere is a bubble of particles and magnetic fields that extend from the sun. This sphere is particularly important for Earth because it protects us from galactic cosmic radiation.

Because the probes are now outside of this heliosphere, their measurements provide unprecedented insights into the bubble's properties, like its shape and its protective role.
voyager interstellar space heliosphere.

The probes are powered by generators that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity. As this energy source becomes weaker, NASA engineers have had to shut down non-essential instruments, like the probes' cameras and heaters, to conserve power.

But as Voyager 2 was entering its last energy reserves, NASA engineers came up with a clever hack that would allow it to stay alive a little longer.

They found a way to divert power from a safety mechanism designed to turn on if the probes' circuit malfunctions because of voltage variations.

"Variable voltages pose a risk to the instruments, but we've determined that it's a small risk, and the alternative offers a big reward of being able to keep the science instruments turned on longer," said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager's project manager at JPL, said in a press release.

"We've been monitoring the spacecraft for a few weeks, and it seems like this new approach is working."

NASA may consider using it on Voyager 1. One of Voyager 1's instruments previously malfunctioned, which means the probe has not been using up as much power as Voyager 2. The decision to switch off instruments for Voyager 1 will be made next year, according to the space agency.

Read the original article at: https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-extends-voyager-2-probe-life-3-years-45-mission-2023-4