What Voyager 1 and 2 detected beyond our solar system?
NASA launched the Voyager 1
and Voyager 2 spacecraft from Earth in 1977. Their mission was to explore Jupiter, Saturn,
and the farthest planets in the solar system. This was a remarkable feat because no object
made in the past by human beings had tried a journey as risky and distant as this.
Both ships were initially scheduled to operate for 4 or 5 years,
but surprisingly, exceeding all expectations; the ships are still operating after 44 years.
Thanks to this, the probes have discovered incredible findings at
the edges of the solar system. Get ready to discover it!
The Voyager 1 and 2 probes are the objects created by the human race that has gone the furthest.
Currently, Voyager 1 is 22,000 million km from Earth, while Voyager 2
is 18,000 million km from Earth. Thanks to all the time they have traveled,
today, both spacecraft have exceeded the limits of the solar system and are
currently sailing in the interstellar medium. During their journey through the solar system,
the two spacecraft took dozens of images of Jupiter and Saturn. The images from
Voyager 1 and 2 allowed us to see many things for the first time. For example,
they captured photos of Jupiter's clouds and storms and the structure of Saturn's rings.
Voyager 1 and 2 also discovered active volcanoes on Io, one of Jupiter's moons.
Voyager 2 also took the first images of Uranus and Neptune. And together,
both spacecraft managed to discover 22 moons. Since then, these ships have continued their
journey away from us. Both continue to send information back to Earth.
This data will help us understand distant solar and interstellar space conditions.
Voyagers have enough fuel and power to operate through 2025. After some time, they will no longer
be able to communicate with the Earth and will be completely turned off for the rest of eternity.
Unless something or someone stops them, the Voyager spacecraft will continue to pass through
new stars repeatedly for thousands of years, carrying the message of humanity with them.
Each Voyager spacecraft carries a gold disc with scenes and sounds from Earth.
The discs also contain music and greetings in different languages. So, if intelligent
life ever encounters these spacecraft, they will be able to know about Earth and us!
THE LIMITS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM Thanks to the Voyager probes, we have discovered
the layers surrounding the solar system. Years ago, It was unknown what the limit
was of the solar system, but now we know that in reality, the solar system is
surrounded by several layers. These are: 1. Heliosphere: the region where all the
planets of the solar system and all the layers surrounding the sun are located.
2. Termination Shock Front: An area beyond Pluto where the solar wind's influence
is almost no longer felt. 3. Heliosheath: the zone
between the termination shock front and the heliopause at the solar system's outer edge.
It extends along the edge of the heliosphere. 4. Heliopause: The point at which the solar
wind binds to the interstellar medium or stellar wind coming from other stars.
5. Bow Shock: Region where solar radiation stops being felt entirely
and begins to dominate interstellar radiation. 6. Oort Cloud: It is a spherical cloud
asteroids with billions of micro asteroids and planetesimals surrounding the entire solar system.
Currently, the Voyager Probes have crossed all the layers of the solar system except for two,
the Bow Shock and the Ort Cloud. It is estimated that with the speed they carry, they will reach
the Oort Cloud in about 300 or 400 years, and it will take approximately 30,000 to 40,000 years to
traverse that region completely. UNEXPECTED DISCOVERIES
When Voyagers traversed the Heliosheath of the solar system, they detected a strange anomaly.
Maybe you didn't know this, but the sun's magnetic field is very different
from the magnetic field of the planets. This is because matter behaves differently
in the sun's core, which influences the behavior of the magnetic field, which rotates in opposite
directions at the north and the south poles, contrary to what happens on earth, where the
magnetic field is more homogeneous at the poles. This rotation of the sun's magnetic field produces
a magnetic wave that spreads throughout the solar system called the "Heliospheric Current,"
which has a shape very similar to the waves that occur when you drop a stone into the water.
The strange thing is that this wave is not homogeneous throughout the solar system,
but when it reaches the limits of the termination shock front,
the waves are compressed as if they were hitting an invisible wall.
The Voyager probes detected this anomaly since the signals they sent showed magnetic bubbles
formed in that region and only in that region. This means that the boundary of the solar
system's heliosheath is not a quiet region as astronomers believed but is a turbulent zone
with fluctuating magnetic changes interacting with the electronic systems of devices and spacecraft.
Thanks to this discovery, we have had to redo the heliosheath model and the rest
of the solar system to fit with the new findings. In 2012 Voyager 1 officially left the Heliosphere,
becoming the first object created by humanity to leave the solar system.
However, this announcement generated more doubt than exaltation in the scientific community
because Voyager crossed the Heliopause when it was 120 Astronomical Units from the sun.
Remember that an astronomical unit is an average distance between the sun and the earth,
about 150 million kilometers. This was quite a finding since,
until then, astronomers did not know how far away the limit of the Heliosphere was.
We knew there was a limit, but we didn't know where it ended. The Voyagers helped
us solve that great mystery. Later on November 5, 2018,
Voyager 2 would also leave the limits of the Heliosphere, becoming the only two objects
created by humanity to leave the solar system. Like Voyager 1, Voyager 2 also left the solar
system when it was 120 astronomical units from the sun, which was something... strange Why?
Every 11 years, solar activity increases and decreases in constant and predictable
cycles. The scientists' theoretical models predicted that these solar cycles increased
or decreased the solar wind, so the size of the Heliosphere should fluctuate on those dates.
However, both Voyagers left the Heliosphere at the same distance, six years apart, which means
that during those six years, the Heliosphere had no changes, so it probably does not
fluctuate as the theoretical models pointed out and is much more stable than we thought.
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Voyager 1 is starting to fail Despite its age, everything indicates
that Voyager 1 is still working correctly. However, NASA engineers working on this spacecraft
have recently been baffled by the probe's articulation and control system. It is generating
data that appears to be completely random. Specifically, scientists discovered that the
spacecraft successfully receives and executes orders from Earth. But the readings from the
probe's Attitude Control and Articulation System (AACS), which keeps the spacecraft
and its antenna in the proper orientation, do not reflect what happens aboard Voyager 1.
The AACS is sending the spacecraft's manipulators junk telemetry data.
Engineers aren't sure if the problem is coming directly from that system
or another part of the ship. In addition, the twin Probe Voyager 2, also launched in 1977,
usually behaves, according to NASA. According to several scientific media, there is a
possibility that NASA will not find the source of the problem and will have to introduce changes to
the software. Or use one of the ship's reservation systems, something that was already done in 2017.
Voyagers are shutting down The team in charge of the Voyager
spacecraft continues to examine the data they send us from the far reaches of the solar system.
However, it is a relatively slow process since a signal from Earth currently takes 20 hours and
33 minutes to reach Voyager 1. While to receive the spacecraft's response carries the same delay.
Each probe has a long-lasting radioisotope thermoelectric generator
that converts heat from the decaying plutonium isotope 238 into electrical energy.
However, this energy is not eternal. Sooner or later, it will run out, which is why
NASA is starting to shut down some spacecraft systems to save the maximum amount of energy.
Even engineers have already said that in the best-case scenario, the ships will completely
deplete their power supply by 2025, and once that happens, they will shut down forever.
Once the Voyagers shut down, they will remain in complete darkness
wandering through interstellar space, eternally adrift.
Several thousand years will likely pass near some stars, and it is estimated that
in 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will leave the solar system towards the star AC + 79 3888,
located in the constellation Camelopardalis. Voyager 2 will pass within 4.3 light-years of
the star Sirius in about 296,000 years. Will any extraterrestrial civilization
ever encounter these ships in the history of the universe?
That is a question that we still have no answer to; likely, that will never happen or that, if it
does, it may be millions of years after humanity has disappeared from the face of the Earth.
It is possible that the Voyager Ships lasted even longer than human civilization,
or who knows, it may be that in the future, we will develop such advanced technology that
allows us to travel in a few days the distance that the Voyager probes took several decades.
What do you think?
What do you think will happen to the Voyager probes in the future?
Let us know your opinion with your valuable comment.