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Voyager 1 and 2 still going strong 40 years on


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  • The title was changed to Voyager 1 and 2 still going strong 40 years on
 

Yes they are

V'ger-pathway_med.jpg

I still remember that amazing time when we started getting the first close-up pictures of Jupiter and all of it's moons.  That was the coolest thing I'd seen since the moon landings.  Very exiting stuff.

Edited by OverSword
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Two amazing spacecraft.  At the National Air and Space Museum they have the full scale developmental testing model hanging from the ceiling so you get to see just how big these craft are.

Edited by Merc14
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Long after civilization on Earth has collapsed, somewhere out in the Oort cloud, the last and only reminder of our species will continue hurtling through the vastness of space. Maybe one day it will be discovered by a curious interplanetary traveler. Maybe it will never be found and thus the Universe will never know the triumphs, pitfalls and curiosities of that silly monkey race living out their lives on a tiny blue marble..

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At about 11 mi/SEC it will only be about 40,000 years till the next exit.

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4 hours ago, Dark_Grey said:

Long after civilization on Earth has collapsed, somewhere out in the Oort cloud, the last and only reminder of our species will continue hurtling through the vastness of space. Maybe one day it will be discovered by a curious interplanetary traveler. Maybe it will never be found and thus the Universe will never know the triumphs, pitfalls and curiosities of that silly monkey race living out their lives on a tiny blue marble..

Voyager 1 left the solar system, within which the Oort cloud exists but  Voyager 2 may still be in it.

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The chance that they'll ever be seen by some other alien race out there is slim to none.  The chance that they'll be seen by a future human generation that seeks them out to put them in a museum is probably a million times higher.  The chance that the human race will survive long enough to see the latter is sadly, very slim.  LOL...perspective...

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Who said they don't make them like they used to.  As long as we here from them, we will always be learning and not worrying about V'ger:rolleyes:

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On ‎2‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 6:36 PM, seanjo said:

Amazing stuff. 40 years to travel 13 billion miles.

 

Do they still send photos back?

no.. all we receive from them is basically status updates.. like 'I'm still here and working'.. the power output is so low that a burning match releases more energy then the signal from them.

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2 hours ago, DingoLingo said:

no.. all we receive from them is basically status updates.. like 'I'm still here and working'.. the power output is so low that a burning match releases more energy then the signal from them.

Actually they are still transmitting some data for a few instruments and the research teams are gathering data on the interstellar medium from Voyager 1.  https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/mission/status/

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On 02/08/2017 at 2:39 AM, Merc14 said:

Voyager 1 left the solar system, within which the Oort cloud exists but  Voyager 2 may still be in it.

It has left the solar system and entered interstellar space as defined by the heliopause. This is the point at which the influence of the sun in terms of emitted particles (the heliosphere) is equal to particles arriving fro interstellar space. Beyond the heliopause the influence of the interstellar medium is greater than that of the sun... interstellar space. This occurred for Voyager one when it was about 121 astronomical units (au) from the sun.

However things aren't that simple, There is more than one way to define the edge of the solar system. The sun's gravitational influence extends far beyond the heliopause.Indeed the Oort cloud, millions of cometary bodies orbiting the sun, is believed to have it's inner edge at a distance of 2000 and 5000 au and an outer edge between 0.8 and 3.1 light years from the sun ( 3/4 of the way to alpha centauri).

Voyager 1 may have entered interstellar space, but it is less than 10% of the way to even entering the Oort cloud.

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Yes and as recently as 70,000 thousand years ago, another star passed through the Oort cloud.        https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150217114121.htm                                                                                                   

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It was very fun to see data about solar winds interaction with interstellar winds ( when news were released ). Just amazing for such an old probe and it's expected to send data back to the Earth till 2025. Fingers crossed.

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still going strong as it they are still working, but are now on limited power.. the power cells should be depleted by about 2025 they are saying.

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3 hours ago, seanjo said:

The "still going strong" headline confused me and gave me the impression they were working at tip top efficiency.

Most of the instruments have not failed, they have been switched off because they are of no further use (for example why keep the cameras powered up when there is nothing for them to see?)

Several instruments are still left running since they return useful information about the interstellar medium.

The weakness in the signal received on Earth, that DingoLingo referred to, is partly due to the reduction in power output of the radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) but mostly due to distance. Signal strength diminishes with distance according to an inverse square law. If you double the distance you receive only a quarter of the signal strength, triple the distance and you have on 1/9 of the signal strength and so on.

Saturn orbits, on average, 9.6 au from the sun. Voyager 1 is currently 136 au from the sun. That means that, even without a drop in power from the RTGs, the signal being received on Earth is only 1/200 of that received during the Saturn encounter.

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
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