From the current state of the Voyager missions, to the strange things that Voyager 1 & 2 have
seen in space, and more! Join us as we show you What The Voyagers Have Detected Out In Space!
Before we talk about all that has been found by the probes out in space, we honestly need to go
and talk about what these devices are, how they work, and how we communicate with them.
For those that don't know, Voyager 1 is a probe that humanity sent out to observe the universe
at large, and it's currently well past Pluto and has shown us many things about our solar system.
In 2017, it was set at around 138 AU's from our planet. AU means "Astronomical Unit",
which in this case means the distance from the Earth to the Sun. So 138 AU's means that it's
138 times far than the Earth is from the sun right now. That's a really big number.
Over 12 billion miles to be exact. That's the farthest anything from man has traveled in space.
One of its crowning achievements was a photograph showing a set of sunbeams, and in one of those
sunbeams was earth. It was a dot. A dot in a grander scale photograph of our solar system.
That's how small we are in the scale of our system when you look from the outside in,
we are a dot. An epic dot, but a dot no doubt. As for Voyager 2, despite it launching BEFORE
Voyager 1 (by 16 days), it was set on a similar mission to explore the solar system.
Albeit via a different route that took it past Neptune and Uranus. The point here is that these
two probes are the farthest things that humanity has sent into the solar system and into space as a
whole. They have traveled incredible distances and are still revealing things about our solar system
that continue to both boggle the mind and astound us as we'll showcase to you later.
One of the most important things about these particular probes right now is that they are in
Interstellar Space, meaning that they are indeed beyond our solar system from a certain point of
view, and they're seeing all sorts of interesting things and helping us learn even more about our
universe. But of course, that raises a very fundamental question in terms of science and
distance. If the Voyager 1 & 2 are in Interstellar Space...how the heck are we communicating with it?
Distance matters in communications as we all know, and the farther you travel from a point
the harder it is to communicate. So since we're not just talking about space,
but outside of our solar system via interstellar space...how are we reaching the probes?
The simple answer to that is the "Deep Space Network", also known as the DSN.
This is a series of radio antennae that work together to not just send signals into space,
but receive the signals from the craft, and even give it instructions on what to do next.
Just as important though is this, the network of antennae are all over the world.
Centers at each DSN site receive incoming information. Then, they send it to the
Space Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
There, the photos and other data are processed and shared with scientists—and the rest of us!
And if we may be so bold, many of the things they've revealed to us here on Earth about space
is downright astounding. Including a sound that theoretically shouldn't exist in space, but does.
Because as it continued to go and roam interstellar space (which for the record
is a place between main stars) it went and detected...a hum. Now, on the surface that
may not seem like much, but trust us, it is. Because not only was it a human from an
unknown source, it was a continuous hum. Many think that it is caused by waves
existing in interstellar space. More specifically, the waves are vibrations in small amounts of gas
found in the near-emptiness of interstellar space. The vibrations are also known as plasma waves.
The waves themselves are able to be converted into a sound, but not one that humans can hear
on its own, which makes it all the more important that the Voyager 1 picked it up.
“If we could hear (the hum), it would sound like a single steady note, playing
constantly but changing very slightly over time." NASA said in a statement the new discovery may
be the first continuous measurement of the density of material in interstellar space.
One of the team who helped make the discovery noted, “This detection offers us a new way to
measure the density of interstellar space and opens up a new pathway for us to explore the
structure of the very nearby interstellar medium.” There had been previous plasma waves found in
space by the Voyagers, but this one is special because this isn't tied to anything else.
The other samples were directly connected to where our sun was still emanating radiation.
But here in Interstellar space, which is again the place "between stars", that's not an option.
Meaning that this state of dense matter could be what is found in
interstellar space as a whole. Potentially that is.
Before we dive more into the things that the Voyagers found, be sure to like or dislike the
video so that we can continue to make the best content possible for you the viewer!
Also, be sure to subscribe to the channel! While the last recent discovery was very
impressive, that's not the only sets of data they provided. Another thing that BOTH of the Voyagers
probes discovered in the last month of 2020 was an electron burst that got many people's interests.
Mainly because it was seen as being a way to go and read into the flaring of certain stars.
The bursts occur when cosmic ray electrons — fast-moving particles from far beyond the solar
system — are pushed by shock waves generated by solar eruptions. The electrons then accelerate
further along cosmic magnetic field lines to incredible speed, study team members said.
"The idea that shock waves accelerate particles is not new," corresponding author Don Gurnett,
professor emeritus in physics and astronomy at the University of Iowa, said in a statement.
"[But] we detected it in a new realm: the interstellar medium,
which is much different than in the solar wind, where similar processes have been observed."
Why does this matter? Simply put, the process to make these electron bursts is complex,
and the results of them being shot into space, mixing with solar winds, and other entities
makes them able to be propelled through space at basically the speed of light!
"Physicists believe these electrons in the interstellar medium are reflected off of a
strengthened magnetic field at the edge of the shock wave,
and subsequently accelerated by the motion of the shock wave," the University of Iowa said in
the same release. "The reflected electrons then spiral along interstellar magnetic field lines,
gaining speed as the distance between them and the shock increases."
While the science is obviously what they're focusing on here,
the fact is that these radiation bursts can also go and hurt both people and our own planet.
Radiation is bad when in the wrong type and doses, and as such, we're trying to
study them so that we can better be prepared for when we send more people into space. As
well as putting more people onto places like the moon, the International Space Station and so on.
So thus, this research, this look into the radiation, the bursts of electrons in space
and so on is absolutely vital for us to know what's going to be affecting us the
more we're out amongst the stars. And if that's not enough for you,
how about the wall of freaking fire that Voyager 2 got to see up close and personal?
Specifically, at one point in time both probes went past the Heliosphere.
That is where solar winds emitted from our sun still blow things outwards.
But, what Voyager 2 (backed up by data from Voyager 1)
found is that once they're outside that reach, the plasma that is out in space doesn't go down,
it actually goes up in density by a large margin! “The marked increase in plasma density is
evidence of Voyager 2 journeying from the hot, lower-density plasma characteristic
of the solar wind to the cool, higher-density plasma of interstellar space. It's also similar
to the plasma density jump experienced by Voyager 1 when it crossed into interstellar space.”
And this is what is leading to the whole "Wall of Fire" thing, because this Wall of Fire is
just outside the solar system according to the probes, and that is a problem in many, many ways.
"The Wall of Fire outside the Solar System is caused by electromagnetic (EM) radiation
which is created by plasma and a local space environment full of raging magnetic fields."
But, while this is terrifying, it proves that NASA was right to launch
not one but two probes to go and explore the universe. Because for all we knew the Wall of
Fire might have just been in one centralized location than a place basically filling up
the boundaries of the outer solar system. "The Voyager probes are showing us how our
Sun interacts with the stuff that fills most of the space between stars in the Milky Way galaxy,"
said Ed Stone, project scientist for Voyager and a professor of physics at Caltech. "Without this
new data from Voyager 2, we wouldn't know if what we were seeing with Voyager 1 was characteristic
of the entire heliosphere or specific just to the location and time when it crossed."
The reason this is all important is that if we want to reach beyond our solar system one day
(and you know that people at NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin and more would
love to go beyond it with spacecraft), we'll need to be ready to face things like this,
and other rare entities that the sun and space as a whole provide for us. And that is another
purpose of the Voyager probes, to go and help us see...what we can't predict on our own.
You see, the Voyager probes have been at this for DECADES now, and it seems that with each new year
they go and provide new data, new insight, and new scientific facts and probabilities
for us to go and ponder and explore. There's no way that when they were launched all those
years ago that the people at NASA felt that they would've discovered this much, and yet, they have.
With every find they make, they're able to go and provide us with a bigger and
more clear picture of space and what awaits us as we try and travel through it. Mysterious sounds,
new bursts of radiation, plasma fire walls, and other finds are just the beginning. Imagine if
the probes were able to find something that could revolutionize how we think of space?
Some would argue that they've already found it, and that's why so many are eager to study all
the data they have, all the pictures and audio readings they sent back, and more.
They're going to keep flying and recording data until they don't work anymore. And you
can bet that the people at NASA and beyond are hoping that doesn't happen for a very long time.
Thanks for watching! What did you think of this look at the Voyagers and both their mission,
and what they have revealed to the world as a whole from the depths of
both our solar system and interstellar space? Do you feel that these are some
of the most important tools we have in regards to researching space as a whole?
What do you feel will be the next major thing these probes show us? Let us know
in the comments below, be sure to subscribe and we'll see you next time on the channel!