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Showing posts with the label interstellar space

NASA's Voyager Facing Space Bullets

Enduring the Fury of Interstellar Space: How Voyager Probes Face Cosmic Challenges NASA's venerable Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes have become synonymous with the spirit of human exploration, journeying to regions no other human-made objects have reached before. Now, billions of miles away from Earth, they traverse the hostile territory of interstellar space, where they face unprecedented challenges posed by galactic cosmic rays—swift, charged particles that threaten their continuing operation. Venturing Beyond the Solar System's Protective Bubble Launched in the late 1970s, both Voyager probes have traveled farther from Earth than any other human-made objects. Voyager 1, at about 15 billion miles away, and Voyager 2, some 12 billion miles distant, have both surpassed the heliosphere, the sun's protective bubble, exposing them to the more intense conditions of interstellar space. This vast region is filled with galactic cosmic rays, which, due to their incredible speed and ...

Voyager 1 Reestablishes Communication: A Triumph in Space Engineering

NASA's Historic Spacecraft Breaks Silence, Promising Return to Scientific Discovery After months of uncertainty and technical challenges, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has begun to reestablish meaningful communication with Earth, marking a significant breakthrough since the communication issues started in November 2023. This progress comes as a relief and an exciting development for the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who have been diligently working to decode the mysterious gibberish data sent by the probe. Voyager 1, alongside its twin Voyager 2, is one of the only spacecraft to venture into interstellar space—the vast region beyond the solar system's outer planets and the influence of the sun. Launched in 1977, both probes have provided invaluable data on our solar system's outer planets and now continue their journey into the space between stars. Addressing the Anomaly The communication issue with Voyager 1 began on November 14, 2023, when it stopped t...