Voyager 1, Earth's farthest spacecraft is exploring an area of space where
nothing from earth has ever flown before the spacecraft has sent back stunning images and
vital data from interstellar space that has previously been shrouded in mystery
but in a new turn of events Voyager 1 seems to be sending weird signals from beyond the
solar system and nobody really knows why his 45 years of space adventures finally taking
its toll on voyager 1 or could it be something else altogether welcome to Factnomenal and for
today's video we'll be taking a look at the voyager's remarkable journey thus far
in the new random data that has scientists and researchers buzzing
Humanity's curiosity for the world that lies beyond the confines of what we know and understand
is always driving us to push for more and more voyager 1 and its sister spacecraft voyager
2 were the result of this unending curiosity to learn about interstellar space and explore
the outer planets in our solar system initially NASA had planned to launch two spacecraft past
Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto and then two others passed Jupiter but given budgetary constraints
they settled on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. with a weight of more than 720 kilograms the spacecraft
which is about the size of a sub-compact car was launched on September 5th 1977. Voyager 1 was in
fact launched after its twin Voyager 2 roughly two weeks later as per their planned flight path and
varying speeds both Voyager missions were able to take advantage of a rather special alignment
of outer planets that happens only once every 176 years creating a slingshot effect and catapulting
the spacecraft from one planet to the next despite being the second to launch Voyager 1 made its way
to Jupiter and Saturn first in 1979 and then 1980 but no one had quite expected just what a
remarkably long journey Voyager 1 was headed for and how long it would remain operational in space
after its successful launch Voyager 1 raced past its twin and was the first
to get behind the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter the spacecraft's first ever
picture of Jupiter was sent back to earth in April 1978 when the probe was still 160
million miles or 265 million kilometers from planet earth it began to snap pictures and collect
data about the giant planet and was the first to uncover two new moons Phoebe and Metis for the
first time detailed pictures of the jovian moon's Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto and Amalthea were
beamed back to earth which forever changed the way we understand the great ice worlds stunning
discoveries were made by the in-depth data and images provided like Io and its many volcanoes
having active interiors or Europa with its far smoother surface showing hints of being a secret
ocean world after a year of exploring Jupiter it was time for the spacecraft to turn its attention
towards Saturn once again Voyager 1 proved just how little we knew about our neighboring planet
and made more discoveries on the ringed planet as well it targeted the f-ring the mysterious
thin structure that had been discovered by NASA's Pioneer 11 probe here it discovered
prometheus and pandora two prominent moons along with atlas and a completely new ring titan the
second largest moon in the solar system proved to be more of a challenge because of its thick
orange haze which would only be photographed years later by the Huygens atmospheric probe
Voyager 1 continued its primary mission of exploring and snapping images of every angle
of Saturn in its moons till it was finally time to make its way to interstellar space
but not before taking one of the most iconic images in space flight history The Pale
Blue Dot an image taken nearly 3.7 billion miles or 6 billion kilometers away from earth
showing the planet suspended as nothing but a tiny dot against the vast expanse of space
perhaps the most exciting part of the spacecraft's journey is when it ventured into
interstellar space the first of its kind to do so Voyager 1 officially left the heliosphere
the giant bubble of charged particles that the sun blows around itself and in August
2012 entered interstellar space the discovery was made when a powerful solar eruption was recorded
by Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument causing electrons near Voyager 1 to vibrate intensely
from these oscillations the team was able to discover that the probe's surroundings
had a higher density than what one might find within the heliosphere researchers were able
to backtrack through the spacecraft's data and nail down the exact date of departure from the
heliopause August 25th 2012 since flying into interstellar space Voyager 1 has made some
astounding discoveries intense cosmic radiation and demonstrating how charged particles from the
sun react with the ones emitted by other stars along with a slew of mind-blowing images just
seemed to be the beginning of its journey Voyager 2 its twin also crossed the heliopause into
interstellar space on November 5th 2018 putting both the Voyager missions beyond the solar system
in its journey venturing beyond the solar system voyager 1 has gone further than any other
human-made object in the world setting records that might take a while to beat but exactly how
far from Earth has the iconic spacecraft ventured according to NASA it's now more than 15 billion
miles or 24 billion kilometers away while the mission has generally proceeded without major
problems scientists involved in the mission have recently noticed that there appear to be some
mysterious signals the probe has been sending their way well Voyager 1 is fully functioning
and hasn't recorded any problems it seems to be confused about its location in space and this
is without going into safe mode or sounding any alarms which it ideally should nasa says that
an antenna attached to voyager 1 which is pointed at earth to send back data still appears to be
working but it seems to be sending back data that is completely invalid nasa released an
official statement after concerns emerged saying the interstellar explorers operating normally
receiving and executing commands from earth along with gathering and returning science data but
readouts from the probe's attitude articulation and control system or AACS don't really reflect
what's happening on board which leads to the question what exactly is happening on board
as with anything space related everyone was quick to speculate that there might be
some alien signals being sent our way or perhaps Voyager 1 is being intercepted and purposefully
sending back confusing signals scientists have been quick to refute this though and any hopes for
life beyond earth interfering with the legendary spacecraft don't seem very likely as much as some
would wish the AACS controls the spacecraft's orientation and among its other tasks keeps the
voyager's high gain antenna pointed precisely at earth to enable it to send data back home for now
all signs show the AACS to be working well but the data being received isn't really adding up
for instance the data may appear to have been generated randomly or doesn't reflect any possible
state the AACS could be in another puzzling issue is the fact that no on-board fault protection
systems have been triggered and neither have the Voyager 1 signals been weakened by any means
as of now the team seems to be very confident that despite possible challenges they'll be able
to face it like they have in the past what exactly these signals and invalid data is no one knows but
for now NASA seems to be satisfied with the fact that everything else seems to be working well
and Voyager personnel will either attempt to fix it or adapt to it a signal from Earth currently
takes approximately 20 hours and 33 minutes to reach Voyager 1 and the same delay exists when
receiving data project manager Suzanne Dodd stated that a mystery like this is sort of par for the
course at this stage of the voyager mission she also emphasized that not only is the spacecraft
45 years old it's also now in interstellar space it's a region about which we know very little
so perhaps the high radiation environment is messing up the probe signals and scientists
will have to find a way to either decode it or work with it she also further stated that this
is no doubt the last of Voyager 1's challenges on its journey through interstellar space
despite the new glitch from the mission Voyager 1 is still breaking barriers decades after its
successful launch the mission completely took everyone by surprise with how long it's been
able to venture beyond the solar system giving us hope for future missions as of right now
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are both well beyond their planetary targets and much farther than they were
ever expected to go spacecraft project manager Suzanne Dodd at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
near Los Angeles California stated "Every day is a new record for voyager" It is yet to make more
stunning discoveries beyond the solar system and perhaps in another 40,000 years it'll drift within
1.6 light years or 9.3 trillion miles of star AC + 793888 in the constellation Camelopardalis the
Voyager Interstellar Mission or VIM according to the team still has the potential to obtain more
interplanetary and interstellar fields particles and waves and could be shooting back data in in
this case perhaps some more weird signals until around 2025 only time will tell what more voyager
1 has in store for us before operations end whereupon it will eternally wander the milky way
and beyond so what are your thoughts on the messages Voyager 1 is sending back to NASA tell us
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