Voyager 1 discovers faint plasma 'hum' in interstellar space

[Seldom Bucket]

Four and a half decades after launch and over 14 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 still makes new discoveries. The spacecraft has picked up the signature of interstellar space itself, a faint plasma "hum" scientists compared to gentle rain.

Plasma has been part of Voyager 1's mission from its launch — the spacecraft discovered lightning strikes in Jupiter's atmosphere and studied how the solar wind tapered off in the outer solar system.

Voyager 1 discovers faint plasma 'hum' in interstellar space

Voyager 1 continues to make discoveries, most recently catching the signature of interstellar space itself, a faint plasma "hum" scientists compared to gentle rain.

www.space.com

 

[JacobCooper45]

What do you think? How many more years can Voyager explore space? It was launched in 1977, and no one thought that in 2021 it would make discoveries on an equal basis with more advanced spacecraft. I don't know how it manages to do it, but it's cool.

 

[Seldom Bucket]

What do you think? How many more years can Voyager explore space? It was launched in 1977, and no one thought that in 2021 it would make discoveries on an equal basis with more advanced spacecraft. I don't know how it manages to do it, but it's cool.

It is further away from earth than any other man made thing, the signal is very weak so I guess it would be out of range or out of power soon.
Cool thing is Voyager is still in our solar system

 

[Y2K]

We think we're so advanced yet the chances of us physically venturing outside our solar system is highly unlikely unless we discover a faster/efficient way to travel.

 

[Seldom Bucket]

We think we're so advanced yet the chances of us physically venturing outside our solar system is highly unlikely unless we discover a faster/efficient way to travel.

Well the Oort Cloud is the limit of our solar system (far as we know) and that alone is almost two light years (50 000AU) in diameter and Voyager has a long way to go before it would reach the start of the Oort Cloud.
There are ways that we can accelerate small satellites to around 10-15% the speed of light and send them to Alpha Centauri with our current technology and would take about 20 years to get there and 4 years for the signal to return to earth. So a 24-25 year wait before we get anything back. With this we also need to send a few hundred of these small satellites at once

 

[Blantyre]

What do you think? How many more years can Voyager explore space? It was launched in 197

In a couple of years, I read a while ago that it is expected to last around 46-years before just floating around in space.

 

[JacobCooper45]

It is further away from earth than any other man made thing, the signal is very weak so I guess it would be out of range or out of power soon.
Cool thing is Voyager is still in our solar system

If I'm not wrong, Voyager left our Solar System some time ago.

 

[Blantyre]

Voyager left our Solar System some time ago

2012-2014 IIRC but I think if we had to send a probe using modern tech, it would take a couple of years to get to intersteller space. Voyager was designed with 1970s tech.

 

[Seldom Bucket]

2012-2014 IIRC but I think if we had to send a probe using modern tech, it would take a couple of years to get to intersteller space. Voyager was designed with 1970s tech.

If I'm not wrong, Voyager left our Solar System some time ago.

No, our solar system ends at the end of the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is part of our solar system and per hypothesis its leftovers from our solar system formation

The Oort cloud is thought to have developed after the formation of planets from the primordial protoplanetary disc approximately 4.6 billion years ago

Recent research has been cited by NASA hypothesizing that a large number of Oort cloud objects are the product of an exchange of materials between the Sun and its sibling stars as they formed and drifted apart and it is suggested that many—possibly the majority—of Oort cloud objects did not form in close proximity to the Sun.[29] Simulations of the evolution of the Oort cloud from the beginnings of the Solar System to the present suggest that the cloud's mass peaked around 800 million years after formation, as the pace of accretion and collision slowed and depletion began to overtake supply.