Voyager 1 is one of NASA’s dual probes, which outperformed the Voyager 2 that launched several days earlier (in 1977) and was the first to reach distant planets in the solar system. Voyager 1 is still the most distant spacecraft, located about 152 astronomical units (152 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun), more than 22.7 billion. How many) From our planet.
Spacecraft In 2012, the spacecraft crossed the heliosphere (the boundary of the heliosphere – the area of control of the solar wind), that is, the imaginary boundary of the solar system as the first man-made device. Today, 44 years later Flight It is still exploring the interstellar space and providing us with more data about the universe.
Voyager 1 recorded the “noise” of the universe
Recently, scientists at Cornell University analyzed the new data sent by the probe and published their results in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy. As the researchers explain, The probe instruments recorded plasma waves of the interstellar medium. In their opinion, it is like “the constant buzz of interstellar gas.”
As confirmed by Stella Koch Ocker Cornell University (co-author of the study), there is constant noise in the data “occurring in a narrow frequency band”. It is created by gas molecules present in interstellar space, and therefore has no relation to the Sun. Astronomy professor James Cordes, co-author of the study, compared that “the interstellar medium is like fine or fine rain.”
The data shows that interstellar gas noise can be detected not only during perturbations caused by our star’s activity, but also when the solar wind does not interact with gas molecules outside of the heliosphere. Hence it is “soft” and “monotonous”, but the recorded activity is still larger than expected.
This is the first ProfessionWhich allowed examining the interstellar medium in this regard. It will allow scientists to better understand how the solar wind affects Gas It is located in the interstellar medium, and how this medium affects the shape of the heliosphere.
Voyager 1 will continue to traverse space at a speed of approximately 17 km / s, which will allow about. 300 Years to reach the Oort Cloud, the hypothetical outer cloud of dust and rocky debris in the solar system. Voyager 1 will reach 1st star (Gliese 445) for just over 40,000. Years. According to NASA, the energy needed for the probe to communicate with Earth will run out very early, in 2025.
