What Voyager probes should see next: Oort cloud, other stars
- Voyagers 1 and 2 are exploring the mysterious region between the stars called interstellar space.
- NASA launched the twin probes in 1977 for a five-year mission to walk around the solar system.
- Voyager 1 should take 40,000 years to reach another star, according to the space agency.
Some 14.8 billion miles of the Earth, the Voyager 1 probe is crossing through the darkness of the interstellar medium — the unexplored space between the stars. It is the most distant man-made object from our planet.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 within 16 days of each other with a design lifetime of five years to closely study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and their respective moons.
now 45 years of his missioneach of them has made history by boldly venturing beyond the boundary of our sun’s influence, known as the heliopause.
The two daring spacecraft continue to send data from beyond the solar system, and their cosmic journeys are far from over.
A diagram showing NASA’s two Voyager probes in interstellar space as of November 2018.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
In 300 years, Voyager 1 could see the Oort cloud, and in 296,000 years, Voyager 2 could pass by Sirius
As part of a continuous power management effort that has increased in recent years, engineers have been turning off non-technical systems aboard the Voyager probes, such as their science instrument heaters, in hopes of keeping them running until the 2030s.
After that, the probes will likely lose their ability to communicate with Earth.
Still, even after NASA shuts down its instruments and ends the Voyager mission, the twin probes will continue to drift in interstellar space.
NASA said that in about 300 years, Voyager 1 should enter the Oort cloud, a hypothetical spherical band filled with billions of frozen comets. It would take another 30,000 years to reach the end.
An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our Solar System.
NASA
Spaceships are taking different paths as they head into deep space. Voyager 2 is only 12.3 billion miles from Earth today.
Voyager 1 should take about 40,000 years to reach AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation Camelopardalis, it has reported. NASA.
The agency added that in about 296,000 years, Voyager 2 should drift by Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
“Voyagers are destined, perhaps eternally, to roam the Milky Way,” NASA said.
Hubble Space Telescope image of Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky.
NASA, ESA, H. Bond (STScI) and M. Barstow (University of Leicester)
“It is truly remarkable that both spacecraft are still operating”
NASA designed the twin spacecraft to study the outer solar system. After completing their primary mission, the Voyagers continued to tour our solar system and capture stunning cosmic vistas.
On February 14, 1990, Voyager 1 captured the “Pale blue dot” image from nearly 4 billion miles away. It is an iconic image of Earth within a beam of scattered sunlight, and is the most distant view of Earth ever captured by any spacecraft.
The iconic “Pale Blue Dot” image taken by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
For the last decadeVoyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space, full of gas, dust and energetic charged particles. Voyager 2 reached interstellar space 2018six years after his twin.
Their observations of the interstellar gas through which they move have revolutionized astronomers’ understanding of this unexplored space beyond our own cosmic backyard.
“It’s really remarkable that both spacecraft are still working and working well — small glitches, but they’re working very well and still sending back this valuable data,” Suzanne Dodd, project manager of the Voyager mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, previously said. he told Insiderand adds: “They are still talking to us.”
#Voyager #probes #Oort #cloud #stars
