After months of difficult trouble-shooting and suspenseful ready, Voyager 1 is as soon as once more speaking to Earth.
The getting old NASA spacecraft, about 24 billion kilometers from dwelling, started transmitting garbled information in November. On April 20, NASA scientists bought the probe again on-line after importing new flight software program to work round a bit of onboard pc reminiscence that had failed. They’re now receiving information concerning the spacecraft’s well being and hope to listen to from its science devices once more in a couple of weeks, says Suzanne Dodd, the mission’s undertaking supervisor at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Meaning the enduring craft may very well be on a path to restoration — and to proceed its exploration of interstellar area.
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 briefly visited Jupiter and Saturn earlier than finally departing the photo voltaic system. It and its twin, Voyager 2, are the longest-operating area probes, now tasked with finding out far-flung photo voltaic particles and cosmic rays. Specifically, the probes have been monitoring the altering of the solar’s magnetic subject and the density of plasma past the photo voltaic system, yielding details about the farthest reaches of the solar’s affect.
“The spacecraft is actually exceptional in its longevity. It’s unbelievable,” Dodd says. “We wish to preserve Voyager going so long as doable so we’ve got this time file of those adjustments.”
Voyager 1 and a pair of, cruising alongside diverging paths, made historical past by crossing the heliopause in 2012 and 2018, respectively (SN: 9/12/13; SN: 12/10/18). At practically 18 billion kilometers from the solar, that’s lengthy been thought-about the outer extent of our star’s magnetic subject and the photo voltaic wind, the boundary earlier than interstellar area.
Since then, Dodd says, the science group has made some stunning findings (SN: 11/4/19). For one, they’ve decided that the heliosphere, the massive bubble of area dominated by the photo voltaic wind, may not be spherical however have one or two tails, making it formed like a comet or a croissant.
And because of Voyager, scientists now know that, regardless of expectations in any other case, the solar’s magnetic subject and charged particles truly stay vital even past the heliopause, says David McComas, a Princeton College astrophysicist not concerned within the mission.
Some theories predicted a serene setting within the distant oceans of interstellar area, however the Voyagers preserve passing by way of waves of charged particles, indicating that the photo voltaic magnetic subject nonetheless holds some sway there. What’s extra, the probes’ information have proven how ripples within the subject type bubbles on the fringe of the photo voltaic system, which is extra frothy and dynamic than anticipated.
Different missions have begun constructing on Voyager’s photo voltaic physics analysis. These embody NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, and the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, which is ready to launch subsequent yr. Earth-orbiting IBEX has been measuring high-energy particles to map the heliosphere for 15 years, whereas IMAP will orbit between the solar and Earth, giving it an uninterrupted view of the solar because it screens the galactic cosmic rays that handle to filter by way of the heliosphere.
“There’s an enormous synergy between the Voyagers and each IBEX and IMAP,” says McComas, principal investigator of the latter two missions. “We have been all actually scared when Voyager 1 stopped phoning dwelling.”
It will likely be many years till one other mission may accomplish what the Voyagers have completed. NASA’s New Horizons soared by Pluto in 2015 and stored going (SN:8/9/18). It’s heading towards the sting of the photo voltaic system, nevertheless it’s cruising slowly and can run out of energy earlier than it may accumulate information past the heliopause.
The Voyagers can fly perpetually, however energy for his or her devices is waning. Over the following few years, NASA will shut some right down to preserve vitality for the remainder.
Meaning Voyager 1’s days of amassing science information are numbered. “It’s a really beloved mission,” Dodd says. “It’s humanity’s spacecraft, and we have to deal with it.”
