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Voyager 1, After Major Malfunction, Is Back From the Brink, NASA Says

The farthest man-made object in space had been feared lost forever after a computer problem in November effectively rendered the 46-year-old probe useless.

By Orlando Mayorquín

Several months after a grave computer problem seemed to spell the end for Voyager 1, which for nearly a half century had provided data on the outer planets and the far reaches of the solar system, NASA announced on Thursday that it had restored the spacecraft to working order.

“The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space,” NASA said in its announcement about Voyager 1, the farthest man-made object in space.

Since the problem surfaced in November, engineers had been working to diagnose and resolve the issue, a tedious and lengthy process complicated by the fact that it takes almost two days to send and receive information from Voyager 1, which was the first man-made object ever to enter interstellar space and is currently more than 15 billion miles from Earth.

The space community had been holding its breath since last year as the prospect of fixing the aging probe appeared as dire as ever.

In February, Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager mission project manager, said the problem, which hindered Voyager 1’s ability to send coherent engineering and science data back to Earth, was “the most serious issue” the probe had faced since she began leading the mission in 2010.

Voyager 1 and its twin probe, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 on a mission to explore the outer planets. NASA capitalized on a rare alignment in the solar system that enabled the probes to visit the four outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — by using the gravity of each to swing to the next.

Its planetary mission a success, Voyager 1 continued its journey toward the edge of the solar system, and in 1990 it snapped a fabled photo of the Earth — a tiny speck in an infinite darkness that became known as the “pale blue dot.”

In 2012, the probe became the first to cross into interstellar space and had since, along with its twin, which followed six years later, collected data about the heliosphere, the space around the sun directly under the sun’s influence.

Perhaps as profound as the pale blue dot, each spacecraft is equipped with a golden phonograph record loaded with sound recordings and images showing humanity and life on Earth, begging to one day be discovered by another civilization.

The outlook for recovering Voyager 1 improved substantially in April , when NASA reported that it had managed to get the probe to send back “usable” data about its engineering systems and its health. That was followed by news late last month that the team had restored functionality to two of Voyager 1’s science instruments, allowing it to send back science data and continue its mission.

On Thursday, the agency announced that it had brought the remaining instruments back online and restored Voyager 1 to its normal operations.

Still, Voyager 1’s new lease on life may not last very long. NASA has previously estimated that the nuclear-powered generators on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were likely to die around 2025. But Voyager 1 has already demonstrated that it can beat the odds. Ms. Dodd hopes both Voyager spacecraft can reach the mission’s 50th anniversary in 2027.

Orlando Mayorquín is a breaking news reporter, based in New York, and a member of the 2023-24 Times Fellowship class , a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Orlando Mayorquín

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NASA has solved the mystery of Voyager 1's strange data transmissions

As NASA wrestles with Artemis 1's engine woes  that are delaying the return to human exploration of the moon, the agency has solved another mystery, one causing its 45-year-old spacecraft, Voyager 1, to transmit garbled data.   

NASA engineers have found the bug that was causing critical instruments on the four-decade-old spacecraft to send "garbled" health information to mission controllers on Earth.     

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Voyager 1's attitude articulation and control system (AACS), which keeps its antenna directed at Earth, earlier this year started to send back information that didn't reflect what was actually happening onboard . The AACS appeared to be functioning normally, but the data it was sending back was deemed invalid because it didn't match any possible state the system could be in. 

SEE: What is Artemis? Everything you need to know about NASA's new moon mission

Also, the rest of the probe appeared healthy, since it continued to gather and return science data.  

The agency today said it has found the source of the garbled information: a zombie computer that should not have been used to relay telemetry data. 

"The AACS had started sending the telemetry data through an onboard computer known to have stopped working years ago, and the computer corrupted the information," NASA said in a press release .  

While NASA engineers have solved the problem, they still don't know why the AACS started routing information through the non-functioning computer. However, they guess that the AACS probably received a faulty command from another onboard computer. 

NASA notes that if that other onboard computer generated a bad command, there could be an issue somewhere else on the spacecraft. The search continues for what the underlying issue is, but engineers believe it won't drastically harm its future. 

SEE:  NASA's new tiny, high-powered laser could find water on the Moon

"We're happy to have the telemetry back," said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager's project manager. 

"We'll do a full memory readout of the AACS and look at everything it's been doing. That will help us try to diagnose the problem that caused the telemetry issue in the first place. So we're cautiously optimistic, but we still have more investigating to do." 

Voyager 1 launched from Cape Canaveral in September 1977 and is now the farthest spacecraft from Earth, traveling in space at about 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) away. It would take light about 20 hours to travel from the spacecraft. 

The Voyager 1 was the first human-made object to reach into interstellar space and in 1998 overtook NASA's Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object. 

It reached interstellar space in August 2012 and, among other things, takes measurements of the density of material in interstellar space . It will eventually exit the solar system but not for a long, long time.

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NASA engineers finally fix Voyager 1 spacecraft — from 15 billion miles away

The Voyager I spacecraft went haywire last year, but NASA engineers say they have finally fixed its data transmission systems and are receiving usable signals from all four science instruments.

NASA's Voyager 1 interstellar probe is finally returning usable data from all four of its science instruments, scientists say.

The fix comes seven months after the probe went off the rails and started talking gibberish, NASA representatives said in a statement on June 13.

The spacecraft went haywire in November 2023 and began sending nonsensical signals following a technical issue with one of its three onboard computers. Engineers partially resolved the glitch in April after sending a command to Voyager 1's flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for neatly packaging science data before the spacecraft transmits them to Earth. The command prompted Voyager 1 to send back its first readable message in four months, enabling engineers to locate the problem. 

After locating the glitch on a single computer chip, the team then devised a workaround to alter the FDS' code remotely — from billions of miles away — and begin restoring Voyager's instruments to working order.

Related: Planet Nine: Is the search for this elusive world nearly over?

Two of Voyager 1's four science instruments resumed returning usable data in May , and after some further tinkering, all four are now back in business, the agency said. The instruments are responsible for gathering information about plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles in interstellar space.

While Voyager 1's data systems are back up and running, further work is needed to fully restore the spacecraft, according to the statement. Engineers still need to resynchronize timekeeping software that enables all three onboard computers to execute commands at the same time, for example. The team will also perform maintenance on the probe's digital tape recorder, which stores data for the plasma wave instrument.

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Voyager 1 is zooming through interstellar space more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth. Interstellar space is the region outside the heliosphere — the protective bubble created by the sun's magnetic fields and winds. The spacecraft is so far away, engineers have to wait 22.5 hours for their commands to reach it and another 22.5 hours for the response. 

Voyager 1 and its twin probe, Voyager 2, have been cruising through space for nearly 47 years. They are NASA's longest-running spacecraft and the most distant human-made objects in existence.

Sascha is a U.K.-based trainee staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.

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Nasa voyager 1 back to science after glitch in interstellar space.

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An illustration shows a Voyager spacecraft in space. The twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes ... [+] launched in 1977.

Not bad for a 46-year-old spacecraft. NASA’s Voyager 1 is back in business after a serious glitch in November put a stop to its science work for months. The probe is humanity’s most distant emissary as it explores interstellar space—the space between stars. NASA’s ability to fix the elderly spacecraft over a great distance is a testament to perseverance and ingenuity.

Two of Voyager 1’s instruments are working again and sending back usable science data. “The mission’s science instrument teams are now determining steps to recalibrate the remaining two instruments, which will likely occur in the coming weeks,” said NASA in a statement on May 22. “The achievement marks significant progress toward restoring the spacecraft to normal operations.”

Voyager 1 is in uncharted territory with both its location and its age. The probe is over 15 billion miles away from home. It takes more than 22.5 hours for a message from Earth to reach the probe and another 22.5 hours to receive a response. That means troubleshooting works in slow motion. Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 launched back in 1977, so the team is working with decades-old systems, technology and documentation. Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to leave the solar system in 2012 when it entered interstellar space. Voyager 2 took the same cosmic step in 2018.

Voyager 1’s plasma wave subsystem and magnetometer instrument are sending usable data. The team is still working on fixing the cosmic ray subsystem and low-energy charged particle instrument. This process could take weeks. “Kinda like when your power goes out and you have to go around your whole house resetting all your electronics,” the Voyager 1 team tweeted on X. “That's basically what my team and I are doing now.”

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Returning Voyager 1 to science operations has been an incremental process. The probe began sending back garbled data in late November and it took time to track down the source of the glitch . “The team eventually determined the issue stemmed from a small portion of corrupted memory in the flight data subsystem, one of the spacecraft’s three computers,” said NASA. “Among other things, this system is designed to package data from the science instruments as well as engineering data about the health and status of the spacecraft before that information is sent to Earth.”

A gold record ready to be attached to a Voyager space probe, circa 1977. The record, The Sounds Of ... [+] Earth, contains a selection of recordings of life and culture on Earth. (Photo by NASA/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

With the source located, the team set about reworking Voyager 1’s code. By late April, the probe was once again making sense . Getting two instruments back to science work marks a major milestone in the recovery operation. Every day Voyager 1 continues to function is a small miracle. NASA’s heroic troubleshooting efforts will help scientists better understand interstellar space .

The spacecraft won’t last forever, but NASA hopes to keep at least one instrument working on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 until around 2025. Even if the science instruments go into retirement, the probes could stay in touch with Earth for many years to come. And there’s always the hope Voyager’s Golden Record —a phonograph record full of messages from Earth—may one day be found by intelligent life from beyond our solar system. In the meantime, Voyager 1 is back to work for as long as it will last.

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14.6 billion miles away, NASA gets Voyager 1 talking again — and discovers a new mystery

That’s some repair job.

NASA’s Voyager 1 is on a fraught and unknowable journey into deep space. Some 14.6 billion miles from Earth, it and its sister craft, Voyager 2, are the furthest human-made objects from our planet, having made it beyond the edges of the Solar System and out into the interstellar medium. At such distances, anything can go wrong. Add to that the fact that these are old craft: The Voyagers launched in the 1970s. So when Voyager 1 started to send home weird, garbled nonsense instead of telemetry data in May of this year , NASA engineers might have been forgiven for calling it a day and pouring one out for perhaps the most successful space mission of all time.

But that’s not how NASA works . Instead, they started working on a remote diagnosis and fix for the record-breaking spacecraft. Now, some four months later, they are triumphant. Voyager 1 is back online and communicating perfectly with ground control as if it never happened. In fact, the fix turned out to be relatively simple — or as simple as anything can be with a 22-hour communications lag in each direction and billions of miles of space in between.

What happened to Voyager 1?

The high-gain antenna, shown on the left in this illustration, is how Voyager 1 sends and receives radio communications with NASA engineers here on Earth.

Cruising in interstellar space, the 45-year-old spacecraft appeared to be operating shockingly well and was transmitting reams of data back to Earth. But in mid-May, Voyager 1’s onboard system responsible for keeping its high-gain antenna pointed at Earth, known as the attitude articulation and control system, or AACS, started beaming home confusing jumbles of data instead of the usual reports about the spacecraft’s health and status. From our viewpoint, it appeared as if the spacecraft had developed something like an electronic version of aphasia — a condition that causes the loss of fluent speech.

“The data may appear to be randomly generated, or does not reflect any possible state the AACS could be in,” explained NASA in a statement from the time.

Even more bafflingly for engineers, Voyager 1 appeared to be in perfect condition despite the spacecraft’s bizarre status reports. The radio signal from the ship remained strong and steady, which meant the antenna was still pointed at Earth — and not in whatever configuration the AACS was claiming it was in to NASA in the reports. Similarly, Voyager 1’s science systems kept gathering and transmitting data as usual, without any of the same strangeness affecting the AACS. And, whatever was wrong with the AACS didn’t trip a fault protection system designed to put the spacecraft in safe mode when there’s a glitch.

Thankfully, NASA engineers diagnosed the problem. And with the diagnosis, they could employ a cure.

The fix — It turned out that the AACS had started sending its telemetry data via an onboard computer that had stopped working years ago. The dead computer corrupted all the outgoing data. All NASA engineers had to do was send the command to the AACS to use the correct computer to send its data home.

But there’s still a problem — The next challenge will be to figure out exactly what caused the AACS to switch computers in the first place. NASA says the system probably received a faulty command from another onboard computer. While they say it is not a major concern for Voyager 1’s well-being right now, the true culprit will need to be found and fixed to prevent future weirdness.

Voyager 1 lives on

Voyager 1 has yielded revelations about our Solar System no one could have predicted.

Currently, Voyager 1 is more than 23.4 billion kilometers or 14.6 billion miles (and gaining, most of the time ) from Earth. You can watch the distance grow and see both Voyager spacecraft’s current positions in space on NASA’s website .

For the last decade, Voyager 1 has been cruising in interstellar space, beyond the reach of our Sun’s magnetic field. The field had offered the craft a little protection from cosmic rays and other interstellar radiation, much as Earth’s magnetic field offers some protection from high-energy particles and radiation from the Sun. Cosmic rays are known to interfere with electronics here on Earth — when one of those high-speed energetic particles strikes a computer chip, it can cause small memory errors, which add up over time — and it’s reasonable to expect that to be an issue for Voyager 1’s onboard computers, too.

“A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” said Voyager 1 and 2 project manager Suzanne Dodd in a statement dated to May.

“The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated. We’re also in interstellar space — a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before.”

We’ll need to wait and see what new perils encounter Voyager next on its travels — and what new discoveries await.

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This article was originally published on Aug. 31, 2022

• Space Science

Voyager 1: 'The Spacecraft That Could' Hits New Milestone

Voyager 1, already the most distant human-made object in the cosmos, reaches 100 astronomical units from the sun on Tuesday, August 15 at 5:13 p.m. Eastern time (2:13 p.m. Pacific time).

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June 14, 2024

Voyager 1 Is Back! NASA Spacecraft Safely Resumes All Science Observations

NASA’s venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft has resumed normal science operations with all four functioning instruments for the first time in more than six months

By Meghan Bartels

Artist concept of Voyager 1.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s beloved Voyager 1 mission is back to normal science operations for the first time in more than six months, according to agency personnel. The announcement was made after NASA received data from all four of the spacecraft’s remaining science instruments.

The venerable spacecraft launched in 1977 and passed into interstellar space in 2012 , becoming the first human-made object to accomplish that feat. Today Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are NASA’s longest-running missions . But the title has been challenging to hold on to for spacecraft that were designed to operate for just four years. The aging probes are stuck in the deep cold of outer space, their nuclear power sources are producing ever less juice, and glitches are becoming increasingly common.

Most recently, Voyager 1 faced a communications issue that began in November 2023. “We’d gone from having a conversation with Voyager, with the 1’s and 0’s containing science data, to just a dial tone,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), of the spacecraft’s troubles in an interview with Scientific American in March.

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After more than six months of long-distance troubleshooting—Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles from Earth, and any signal takes more than 22.5 hours to travel from our planet to the spacecraft—mission personnel have finally coaxed Voyager 1 to gather and send home data with all its remaining science instruments, according to a NASA statement .

The fix required months of analysis to track the issue to a particular chip within the spacecraft’s flight data subsystem. That chip’s code couldn’t be relocated in one fell swoop, however, so mission personnel split the information chip into chunks that could be tucked into stray corners of the rest of the system’s memory. NASA began implementing the new commands in April . And in May the agency directed the aging spacecraft to resume collecting and transmitting science data. Voyager 1’s plasma-wave subsystem and magnetometer bounced back immediately. Its cosmic-ray detector and ow-energy-charged-particles instrument required additional troubleshooting, but both are now finally operating normally, according to NASA.

And although the spacecraft is back to normal operations, the work isn’t quite over. To complete spacecraft recovery from the glitch, mission personnel still need to resynchronize timekeeping software across Voyager 1’s three computers and to maintain the recorder for the spacecraft’s plasma-wave instrument, in addition to completing smaller tasks.

Taken together, Voyager 1’s four remaining instruments offer scientists a precious glimpse of interstellar space. Voyager 1 and 2 are the only two operational spacecraft to cross out of the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles that marks the influence of the sun across the solar system. This bubble grows and shrinks as the sun passes through its 11-year activity cycle . Inside the heliosphere, space is dominated by particles of the solar wind, while outside of it, cosmic rays reign.

Scientists never dreamed that Voyager 1 would be able to taste these exotic particles. Its primary science targets were Jupiter, Saturn, and the latter planet’s rings and largest moon, Titan—all of which the spacecraft flew past within a few years of its launch. But the mission has survived every challenge to continue trekking through the solar system and into interstellar space, informing scientists about its environment along the way.

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How the most distant object ever made by humans is spending its dying days

By Rahul Rao

Posted on Apr 28, 2021 4:00 PM EDT

4 minute read

The eyes of the world might be fixed upon Mars, where last week alone, the Ingenuity helicopter took flight and the Perseverance rover made oxygen . But farther—much farther—Voyager 1, one of the oldest space probes and the most distant human-made object from Earth, is still doing science.

The probe is well into the fourth decade of its mission, and it hasn’t come near a planet since it flew past Saturn in 1980. But even as it drifts farther and farther from a dimming sun, it’s still sending information back to Earth, as scientists recently reported in The Astrophysical Journal.

For decades, Voyager has been sailing away at around 11 miles (17 kilometers) every second. Each year, it travels another 3.5 AU (the distance between Earth and the sun) away from us. Now, it’s sending messages home even as it prepares to leave this solar system behind.

There are multiple ways to think about the “edge of the solar system.” One is a boundary region called the heliopause. That’s the frontier where the solar wind (the soup of charged particles continually thrown off by the sun) is too weak to hold off the interstellar medium—the plasma, dust, and radiation that fill the bulk of space.

When Voyager 1 left Earth in 1977, nobody was certain where the heliopause was, according to Bill Kurth , an astrophysicist at the University of Iowa who has been working with Voyager 1 since before it launched. Some scientists then even thought the heliopause was as close as 10 or even 5 AU—around the orbits of Jupiter, which Voyager 1 passed in 1979, or Saturn.

In reality, the heliopause is around 120 AU away. We know this partly because Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause in August 2012, a whole three and a half decades after it departed Earth. That puts the probe well and truly in interstellar space.

[Related: Voyager 2 can finally probe the rarified plasma surrounding our solar system ]

Out here, space is filled with interstellar medium—but you’ll not see very much of it. A cube of air at sea level on Earth contains more than a trillion times as many molecules as an equal-sized cube of even the interstellar medium’s densest parts. The region that Voyager 1 is traversing is sparser still. And for the most part, it’s quiet.

But every few years, as Voyager 1 records more data about the plasma and dust out here, it finds something . For instance, in 2012 and again in 2014, Voyager 1 felt a shock. According to Kurth, what Voyager 1 recorded was a magnetic spike, accompanied by a burst of energetic electrons that caused intense, oscillating electric fields. These shocks are the most distant effects of the sun, rippling outwards even past the heliopause.

What Voyager 1 encountered in 2020 was another jump in magnetic field strength, but without those intense electrical oscillations. Scientists instead think it’s a pressure front, a much more subtle disturbance moving out into the interstellar medium. Voyager 1 previously encountered something like it in 2017.

According to Jon Richardson , an astrophysicist at MIT who wasn’t an author on the paper, this latest finding shows that Voyager 1 is still capable of surprising scientists. Normally, he says, the probe would need to experience a shock in the surrounding plasma to measure its density. But with observations like this one, scientists have found a way to use Voyager 1 to continually monitor that density—over 13 billion miles away from us.

Richardson also says the findings show that Voyager 1 continues to feel the sun’s tendrils, billions of miles past the heliopause. “The sun is still having a major effect,” he says, “far outside the heliosphere.”

Meanwhile, Voyager 1 is still within the sun’s gravitational influence. In about 300 years, scientists expect, Voyager 1 will start to enter the inner edge of the Oort cloud, that shroud of comets which stretches as far as several light-years away.

We’ve never actually seen evidence of the Oort cloud, but sadly, Voyager 1 likely won’t be the one to reveal it. The probe is quite literally living on borrowed time. Plutonium-238, the radioisotope that powers the probe’s generator, has a half-life of about 88 years. 

[Related: Ask Us Anything: What happens to your body when you die in space? ]

As a result, Voyager 1 is starting to lose fuel. Scientists are already having to make choices about which parts of the probe they should keep functional. By the mid-2020s, it’s likely that the probe won’t be able to power even a single instrument.

Still, scientists like Kurth hope they can eke the probe’s life out to 2027, the 50th anniversary of its launch. That, Kurth says, is a milestone that none of Voyager 1’s designers could ever have foreseen.

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Voyager 1 defies the odds yet again and is back online voyager 1 defies the odds yet again and is back online.

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‘Check his pulse one more time’: NASA accidentally airs ISS emergency test ‘Check his pulse one more time’: NASA accidentally airs ISS emergency test

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In an artist's depiction, the Voyager 1 craft continues to cruise through interstellar space.

In the emptiness of space, Voyager 1 detects plasma ‘hum’

By blaine friedlander.

Voyager 1 – one of two sibling NASA spacecraft launched 44 years ago and now the most distant human-made object in space – still works and zooms toward infinity.

As the craft toils, it has long since zipped past the edge of the solar system through the heliopause – the solar system’s border with interstellar space – into the interstellar medium. Now, its instruments have detected the constant drone of interstellar gas (plasma waves), according to Cornell-led research published May 10 in Nature Astronomy.

Examining data slowly sent back from more than 14 billion miles away, Stella Koch Ocker, a Cornell doctoral student in astronomy, has uncovered the emission. “It’s very faint and monotone, because it is in a narrow frequency bandwidth,” Ocker said. “We’re detecting the faint, persistent hum of interstellar gas.”

This work allows scientists to understand how the interstellar medium interacts with the solar wind, Ocker said, and how the protective bubble of the solar system’s heliosphere is shaped and modified by the interstellar environment.

Launched in September 1977, the Voyager 1 spacecraft flew by Jupiter in 1979 and then Saturn in late 1980. Travelling at about 38,000 mph, Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause in August 2012.

After entering interstellar space, the spacecraft’s Plasma Wave System detected perturbations in the gas. But, in between those eruptions – caused by our own roiling sun – researchers have uncovered a steady, persistent signature produced by the tenuous near-vacuum of space.

“The interstellar medium is like a quiet or gentle rain,” said senior author James Cordes , the George Feldstein Professor of Astronomy (A&S). “In the case of a solar outburst, it’s like detecting a lightning burst in a thunderstorm and then it’s back to a gentle rain.”

Ocker believes there is more low-level activity in the interstellar gas than scientists had previously thought, which allows researchers to track the spatial distribution of plasma – that is, when it’s not being perturbed by solar flares.

Cornell research scientist Shami Chatterjee explained how continuous tracking of the density of interstellar space is important. “We’ve never had a chance to evaluate it. Now we know we don’t need a fortuitous event related to the sun to measure interstellar plasma,” Chatterjee said. “Regardless of what the sun is doing, Voyager is sending back detail. The craft is saying, ‘Here’s the density I'm swimming through right now. And here it is now. And here it is now. And here it is now.’ Voyager is quite distant and will be doing this continuously.”

Voyager 1 left Earth carrying a Golden Record created by a committee chaired by the late Cornell professor Carl Sagan, as well as mid-1970s technology.

“Scientifically, this research is quite a feat. It’s a testament to the amazing Voyager spacecraft,” Ocker said. “It’s the engineering gift to science that keeps on giving.”

In addition to Ocker, Cordes and Chatterjee, the paper, “ Persistent plasma waves in interstellar space detected by Voyager 1 ,” was co-authored by professor emeritus Donald A. Gurnett, the principal investigator on the plasma wave system (PWS) on both Voyager spacecraft; Steven R. Spangler, professor; and research scientist William S. Kurth, co-investigator on PWS, all from the University of Iowa.

NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Science Foundation supported the work. Cordes, Chatterjee and Ocker are members of Cornell’s Carl Sagan Institute .

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NASA spacecraft detects a constant 'hum' deep in the cosmos

Beyond the edge of the solar system, more than 14 billion miles from Earth, a NASA spacecraft has detected a curious and persistent "hum" in interstellar space.

The faint but constant vibrations were picked up by the Voyager 1 spacecraft , which, after more than four decades journeying deep into the cosmos, is the most distant human-made object in space. Scientists say the new discovery, published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy , is providing a unique and never-before-seen glimpse of the interstellar environment — the frontier beyond the reaches of the sun and planets in our cosmic neighborhood.

"Voyager 1 is in an interesting region of space that is outside this thing called the heliosphere, which is the protective bubble that encases all the planets in the solar system," said Stella Ocker, a doctoral student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and one of the authors of the new study. "So, it's really our only tool for directly sampling the nature of interstellar space."

Ocker and her colleagues don't yet know what's causing the "hum," but it was measured through ripples of plasma in what's known as the interstellar medium, the hodgepodge of gas, radiation and particles that make up the space between stars. While it's not an actual audio signal, the faint drone showed up as vibrations in a narrow frequency bandwidth, Ocker said.

Previously, scientists could only take fleeting measurements of the interstellar medium after periodic but isolated eruptions from the sun, which would unleash shockwaves that coursed through the solar system and beyond.

The new findings suggest that by tracking these persistent vibrations in the interstellar medium, it may be possible to tease out specific properties of this environment, such as its density. This, in turn, will help astronomers better understand the mysterious environment beyond the solar system.

"Rather than trying to map the geography around my house based on one or two trees in my yard, this will let me map all the way from my house to the next neighborhood," said Merav Opher, a professor of astronomy at Boston University who was not involved with the new research.

Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in 2012, but the plasma "hum" was first detected in 2017, Ocker said. It's not yet understood why the signal didn't appear sooner or what that lag could mean, she added.

The scientists are also keen to see whether the persistent drone continues as the probe travels deeper through interstellar space.

Opher called the new findings "phenomenal," because they could reveal much about how the cocoon-like magnetic bubble around the solar system interacts with what lies beyond it.

There are questions, for instance, about how much the sun's activity shapes the solar system's protective cocoon and interacts with the interstellar medium.

"It's almost 10 years now that Voyager 1 has been in interstellar space, and we see that the influence of the sun is still pretty strong," Opher said.

Voyager 1, and its twin Voyager 2 probe, were launched in 1977. Both spacecraft flew past all of the giant planets in the outer solar system before crossing the heliosphere's boundary. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012, and Voyager 2 followed in 2018 .

Ocker said the new research is a testament to the pioneering Voyager 1 mission, which continues to beam back data 44 years after its launch.

"It’s the engineering gift to science that keeps on giving," she said.

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.

• The Contents
• The Making of
• Where Are They Now
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Q & A with Ed Stone

golden record

Where are they now.

• frequently asked questions
• Q&A with Ed Stone

Mission Status

Instrument status.

Where are the Voyagers now?

To learn more about Voyager, zoom in and give the spacecraft a spin. View the full interactive experience at Eyes on the Solar System . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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Space Flight Operations Schedule (SFOS)

SFOS files showing Voyager activity on Deep Space Network (DSN)

2024 Tracking Schedule

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Voyager 1 glitch? Strange signals from venerable probe has NASA baffled

It's never too late for a Voyager 1 mystery in deep space.

Spending 45 years traversing the solar system really does a number on a spacecraft.

NASA's Voyager 1 mission launched in 1977, passed into what scientists call interstellar space in 2012 and just kept going — the spacecraft is now 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) away from Earth . And while Voyager 1 is still operating properly, scientists on the mission recently noticed that it appeared confused about its location in space without going into safe mode or otherwise sounding an alarm.

"A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission," Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said in a statement .

Related : Pale Blue Dot at 30: Voyager 1's iconic photo of Earth from space reveals our place in the universe

"The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated," Dodd added. "We're also in interstellar space — a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before."

The glitch has to do with Voyager 1's attitude articulation and control system, or AACS, which keeps the spacecraft and its antenna in the proper orientation. And the AACS seems to be working just fine, since the spacecraft is receiving commands, acting on them and sending science data back to Earth with the same signal strength as usual. Nevertheless, the AACS is sending the spacecraft's handlers junk telemetry data.

The NASA statement does not specify when the issue began or how long it has lasted.

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The agency says that Voyager personnel will continue to investigate the issue and attempt to either fix or adapt to it. That's a slow process, since a signal from Earth currently takes 20 hours and 33 minutes to reach Voyager 1; receiving the spacecraft's response carries the same delay.

— What Voyager 1 learned at Jupiter 40 years ago — Voyager at 40: 40 photos from NASA's epic 'grand tour' mission — Voyager 1's historic flyby of Jupiter in photos  

The twin Voyager 2 probe, also launched in 1977, is behaving normally, NASA said. The power the twin spacecraft can produce is always falling, and mission team members have turned some components off to save juice — measures they hope will keep the probes working through at least 2025.

"There are some big challenges for the engineering team," Dodd said. "But I think if there's a way to solve this issue with the AACS, our team will find it."

Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @ meghanbartels . Follow us on Twitter @ Spacedotcom and on Facebook .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Meghan is a senior writer at Space.com and has more than five years' experience as a science journalist based in New York City. She joined Space.com in July 2018, with previous writing published in outlets including Newsweek and Audubon. Meghan earned an MA in science journalism from New York University and a BA in classics from Georgetown University, and in her free time she enjoys reading and visiting museums. Follow her on Twitter at @meghanbartels.

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It should take another 300 years for NASA's Voyager 1 probe to reach the most distant region of our solar system. Until then, it's cruising through the void between the stars.

• Voyagers 1 and 2 are exploring the mysterious region between stars called interstellar space.
• NASA launched the twin probes in 1977 for a five-year mission to trek across the solar system.
• Nearly 46 years later, the two spacecraft are still going and are the farthest man-made objects from Earth.

Some 14.8 billion miles from Earth, the Voyager 1 probe is cruising through the blackness of the interstellar medium — the unexplored space between stars. It's the farthest human-made object from our planet.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched in 1977 within 16 days of one another with a design lifetime of five years to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their respective moons up close, according to NASA.

Nearly 46 years into their mission , they've each made history by boldly venturing beyond the boundary of our sun's influence, known as the heliopause.

Both plucky spacecraft continue to send data back from beyond the solar system. Even though they've had some brief interruptions — it seems their cosmic journeys are far from over.

In 300 years, Voyager 1 could see the Oort Cloud, and in 296,000 years, Voyager 2 could pass by Sirius

As part of an ongoing power-management effort that has ramped up in recent years, engineers have been powering down non-technical systems on board the Voyager probes, like their science-instruments heaters, hoping to keep the spacecraft going through 2030 .

After that, the probes will likely lose their ability to communicate with Earth.

Still, even after NASA shuts down their instruments and calls the Voyager mission to an end, the twin probes will continue to drift out in interstellar space.

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NASA said that about 300 years from now, Voyager 1 should enter the Oort Cloud, a spherical band far beyond Pluto's orbit that's full of billions of frozen comets. It should take another 30,000 years to reach the end of it.

The spacecraft are taking different paths as they head out into deep space. Voyager 2 is only about 12.3 billion miles away from Earth today.

It should take the Voyager 1 probe approximately 40,000 years to reach AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation Camelopardalis, according to NASA .

The agency added that in some 296,000 years, Voyager 2 should drift by Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky.

"The Voyagers are destined — perhaps eternally — to wander the Milky Way," NASA said.

'It's really remarkable that both spacecraft are still operating'

NASA designed the twin spacecraft to study the outer solar system. After completing their primary mission, the Voyagers kept chugging along, taking a grand tour of our galaxy and capturing breathtaking cosmic views.

On February 14, 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft captured the " Pale Blue Dot " image from almost 4 billion miles away. It's an iconic image of Earth within a scattered ray of sunlight, and it's the farthest view of Earth any spacecraft has captured.

For the last decade , Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space, which is full of gas, dust, and charged energetic particles. Voyager 2 reached interstellar space in 2018 , six years after its twin.

Their observations of the interstellar gas they're moving through has revolutionized astronomers' understanding of this unexplored space beyond our own cosmic backyard.

"It's really remarkable that both spacecraft are still operating and operating well — little glitches, but operating extremely well and still sending back this valuable data," Suzanne Dodd, the project manager for the Voyager mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, previously told Insider , adding, "They're still talking to us."

This post has been updated.  This story was originally published in December 2022. 

Watch: NASA is flying a $1.5 billion spacecraft into the sun — here's why

• Main content

Voyager 1 Is Back! Legendary Probe Makes Contact From Interstellar Space

A friendly voice we've been longing to hear is drifting back to us from interstellar space, 24 billion kilometers away (15 billion miles).

Voyager 1 – the most distant human-made object to Earth – is, once again, sounding like itself on the deep space radio network, after half a year of spewing gobbledegook .

Scientists at NASA are elated.

"We're back, baby!" reads an X post from NASA on June 15.

"Our Voyager 1 spacecraft is conducting normal science operations for the first time since November 2023. All four instruments – which study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles – are returning usable science data."

It's the first time in many months that the 46-year-old probe can share all that it's probing on the near-freezing borderlands of our Solar System, outside the influence of our Sun.

In November of 2023, Voyager 1 suddenly started sending back random readouts that didn't make any sense to scientists.

The issue seemed to stem from a small, corrupted chip in the probe's onboard memory system, possibly caused by old age, or maybe triggered by energetic particles in interstellar space.

Because the technology on board Voyager 1 is so outdated, engineers at NASA had to consult manuals from the 1970s to try and get around the problem.

On May 19, the team at NASA succeeded in getting two of the four science instruments on board Voyager 1 to return readable data back to Earth.

"Kinda like when your power goes out and you have to go around your whole house resetting all your electronics… That's basically what my team and I are doing now," explained an official account for Voyager 1 on X.

Now, all four science instruments on board the deep space probe can return usable data to our planet once again.

Voyager 1 and its sibling, Voyager 2, are exploring a region of space never directly encountered by a human-made object before, so missing out on any data is quite the letdown.

These probes are the only way scientists can directly study the interstellar medium, and their measurements have already revealed important details about how our Solar System is shaped and how far the Sun's 'solar bubble' extends.

While the Voyager space probes are often said to have 'left our Solar System,' they have only exited the heliopause and are yet to make it to the hypothesized Oort cloud , which is thought to be the outermost zone of our gravitationally bound system.

Sadly, both Voyagers will never make it to the icy edge in working order , as their generators on board steadily continue to lose power. At its current speed, experts at NASA predict Voyager 1 will take three centuries to reach the Oort cloud. To get to the other side of the cloud would take another 30,000 years.

Engineers predict Voyager 1 will have at least one instrument still going by 2025, and it could continue talking on NASA's Deep Space Network through 2036. It all depends on how much power the probe has left by that time.

In the last few years, Voyager 1 has shown signs of aging. Apart from this most recent event, in 2022 , a broken computer onboard began corrupting outgoing messages. The problem was ultimately fixed, but it took several days. Even traveling at the speed of light , radio messages from the probe take approximately 22.5 hours to return to Earth.

A team at NASA is now working on maintenance to do with Voyager 1's digital tape recorder. This memory system only records 48 seconds of high rate data three times a week from the plasma wave instrument on board.

This means that when Voyager 1 loses its ability to communicate properly, all its other information is lost.

Who knows what we missed the last six months?

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It’s Official – Voyager 1 Has Entered Interstellar Space

By Jia-Rui C. Cook/D.C. Agle, Jet Propulsion Laboratory September 13, 2013

This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft entering interstellar space, or the space between stars. Interstellar space is dominated by the plasma, or ionized gas, that was ejected by the death of nearby giant stars millions of years ago. The environment inside our solar bubble is dominated by the plasma exhausted by our sun, known as the solar wind. The interstellar plasma is shown with an orange glow similar to the color seen in visible-light images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope that show stars in the Orion nebula traveling through interstellar space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A newly published study has confirmed that the 36-year-old NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft has left our solar system and has entered interstellar space.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun.

New and unexpected data indicate Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year through plasma , or ionized gas, present in the space between stars. Voyager is in a transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble, where some effects from our sun are still evident. A report on the analysis of this new data, an effort led by Don Gurnett and the plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, is published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science .

“Now that we have new, key data, we believe this is mankind’s historic leap into interstellar space,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. “The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we’ve all been asking — ‘Are we there yet?’ Yes, we are.”

Voyager 1 first detected the increased pressure of interstellar space on the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding the sun that reaches far beyond the outer planets, in 2004. Scientists then ramped up their search for evidence of the spacecraft’s interstellar arrival, knowing the data analysis and interpretation could take months or years.

Voyager 1 does not have a working plasma sensor, so scientists needed a different way to measure the spacecraft’s plasma environment to make a definitive determination of its location. A coronal mass ejection, or a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields, that erupted from the sun in March 2012 provided scientists the data they needed. When this unexpected gift from the sun eventually arrived at Voyager 1’s location 13 months later, in April 2013, the plasma around the spacecraft began to vibrate like a violin string. On April 9, Voyager 1’s plasma wave instrument detected the movement. The pitch of the oscillations helped scientists determine the density of the plasma. The particular oscillations meant the spacecraft was bathed in plasma more than 40 times denser than what they had encountered in the outer layer of the heliosphere. Density of this sort is to be expected in interstellar space.

This artist’s concept puts solar system distances in perspective. The scale bar is in astronomical units, with each set distance beyond 1 AU representing 10 times the previous distance. One AU is the distance from the sun to the Earth, which is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. Neptune, the most distant planet from the sun, is about 30 AU. Informally, the term “solar system” is often used to mean the space out to the last planet. Scientific consensus, however, says the solar system goes out to the Oort Cloud, the source of the comets that swing by our sun on long time scales. Beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, the gravity of other stars begins to dominate that of the sun. The inner edge of the main part of the Oort Cloud could be as close as 1,000 AU from our sun. The outer edge is estimated to be around 100,000 AU. NASA’s Voyager 1, humankind’s most distant spacecraft, is around 125 AU. Scientists believe it entered interstellar space, or the space between stars, on August 25, 2012. Much of interstellar space is actually inside our solar system. It will take about 300 years for Voyager 1 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and possibly about 30,000 years to fly beyond it. Alpha Centauri is currently the closest star to our solar system. But, in 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will be closer to the star AC +79 3888 than to our own sun. AC +79 3888 is actually traveling faster toward Voyager 1 than the spacecraft is traveling toward it. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The plasma wave science team reviewed its data and found an earlier, fainter set of oscillations in October and November 2012. Through extrapolation of measured plasma densities from both events, the team determined Voyager 1 first entered interstellar space in August 2012.

“We literally jumped out of our seats when we saw these oscillations in our data – they showed us the spacecraft was in an entirely new region, comparable to what was expected in interstellar space, and totally different than in the solar bubble,” Gurnett said. “Clearly we had passed through the heliopause, which is the long-hypothesized boundary between the solar plasma and the interstellar plasma.”

The new plasma data suggested a timeframe consistent with abrupt, durable changes in the density of energetic particles that were first detected on August 25, 2012. The Voyager team generally accepts this date as the date of interstellar arrival. The charged particle and plasma changes were what would have been expected during a crossing of the heliopause.

“The team’s hard work to build durable spacecraft and carefully manage the Voyager spacecraft’s limited resources paid off in another first for NASA and humanity,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “We expect the fields and particles science instruments on Voyager will continue to send back data through at least 2020. We can’t wait to see what the Voyager instruments show us next about deep space.”

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn . Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune . Voyager 2, launched before Voyager 1, is the longest continuously operated spacecraft. It is about 9.5 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) away from our sun.

Voyager mission controllers still talk to or receive data from Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 every day, though the emitted signals are currently very dim, at about 23 watts — the power of a refrigerator light bulb. By the time the signals get to Earth, they are a fraction of a billion-billionth of a watt. Data from Voyager 1’s instruments are transmitted to Earth typically at 160 bits per second, and captured by 34- and 70-meter NASA Deep Space Network stations. Traveling at the speed of light, a signal from Voyager 1 takes about 17 hours to travel to Earth. After the data are transmitted to JPL and processed by the science teams, Voyager data are made publicly available.

“Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. “Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey.”

Scientists do not know when Voyager 1 will reach the undisturbed part of interstellar space where there is no influence from our sun. They also are not certain when Voyager 2 is expected to cross into interstellar space, but they believe it is not very far behind.

JPL built and operates the twin Voyager spacecraft. The Voyagers Interstellar Mission is a part of NASA’s Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA’s Deep Space Network, managed by JPL, is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions.

The cost of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions – including launch, mission operations, and the spacecraft’s nuclear batteries, which were provided by the Department of Energy – is about $988 million through September.

For a sound file of the oscillations detected by Voyager in interstellar space, animations, and other information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/interstellarvoyager/ .

For an image of the radio signal from Voyager 1 on February 21 by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Long Baseline Array, which links telescopes from Hawaii to St. Croix, visit: http://www.nrao.edu .

Reference: “In Situ Observations of Interstellar Plasma with Voyager 1” by D. A. Gurnett, W. S Kurth, L. F. Burlaga and N. F. Ness, 12 September 2013,  Science . DOI: 10.1126/science.1241681

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Quick Facts

Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.5 AU per year

Voyager 2 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.1 AU per year

Five spacecraft - Voyagers 1 and 2; Pioneers 10 and 11; and New Horizons are on an interstellar trajectory.

Voyager's computers procees about 8,000 instructions per section. A modern smartphone yields more than 14 billion instructions per second.

Can the Voyager imaging cameras be turned back on?

It is possible for the cameras to be turned on, but it is not a priority for Voyager's Interstellar Mission. After Voyager 1 took its last image (the "Solar System Family Portrait" in 1990), the cameras were turned off to save power and memory for the instruments expected to detect the new charged particle environment of interstellar space. Mission managers removed the software from both spacecraft that controls the camera. The computers on the ground that understand the software and analyze the images do not exist anymore. The cameras and their heaters have also been exposed for years to the very cold conditions at the deep reaches of our solar system. Even if mission managers recreated the computers on the ground, reloaded the software onto the spacecraft and were able to turn the cameras back on, it is not clear that they would work.

In addition, it is very dark where the Voyagers are now. While you could still see some brighter stars and some of the planets with the cameras, you can actually see these stars and planets better with amateur telescopes on Earth.

What instruments on the spacecraft are still working and what have been turned off?

View an updated list of the status o/f Voyager instruments: Mission Status .

How long can Voyager 1 and 2 continue to function?

Editor's note: Both Voyagers were still functioning in January 2024.

The radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) on each spacecraft puts out 4 watts less each year. Because of this diminishing electrical power, the Voyager team has had to prioritize which instruments to keep on and which to turn off. Heaters and other systems have also been turned off one by one as part of power management.

The Voyager team has chosen to keep operating the instruments that are the most likely to send back key data about the heliosphere and interstellar space -- the fields and particles instruments. Engineers expect to begin turning off fields and particles science instruments one by one, starting in 2020 for Voyager 2. Voyager 2 will have to start turning science instruments off sooner because it is currently operating one more instrument than Voyager 1. Engineers expect each spacecraft to continue operating at least one science instrument until around 2025.

Even if science data won't likely be collected after 2025, engineering data could continue to be returned for several more years. The two Voyager spacecraft could remain in the range of the Deep Space Network through about 2036, depending on how much power the spacecraft still have to transmit a signal back to Earth.

Where are Voyager 1 and 2 today?

Where is Voyager 1 going? When will it get there? How about Voyager 2?

Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.5 AU per year, 35 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the north, in the general direction of the solar apex (the direction of the sun's motion relative to nearby stars). Voyager 1 will leave the solar system aiming toward the constellation Ophiuchus. In the year 40,272 AD (more than 38,200 years from now), Voyager 1 will come within 1.7 light years of an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear or Little Dipper) called AC+79 3888.

Voyager 2 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.1 AU per year, 48 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the south toward the constellations of Sagittarius and Pavo. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will come within about 1.7 light years of a star called Ross 248, a small star in the constellation of Andromeda..

Where do we consider our solar system to end; Pluto's orbit? Solar apex?

The solar system may be broadly defined as consisting of all those objects that are ultimately governed by the gravitational field of the sun. In addition to the planets, moons, asteroids and dust of the planetary system, it includes the distant bodies of the Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud, the last extending perhaps as far as 50,000 astronomical units (1 AU = about 93 million miles). The gravitational influence of the sun may extend as far as 2 light years. (From "Solar System", James H. Shirley, in Encyclopedia of Planetary Science).

That said, Pluto (and sometimes Neptune) is the most distant planet in our planetary system. The Voyagers passed the orbit of Neptune (which was furthest at the time) in August 1989. Neither flew by Pluto, which was elsewhere in its orbit at the time.

Another concept is the heliosphere, which is a bubble around the sun created by the outward flow of the solar wind from the sun and the opposing inward flow of the interstellar wind. That heliosphere is the region influenced by the dynamic properties of the sun that are carried in the solar wind - such as magnetic fields, energetic particles, solar wind plasma, etc. Voyager 1, which is traveling up away from the plane of the planets, passed out of the heliosphere into interstellar space, beyond the bubble of the solar wind, on Aug. 25, 2012. Voyager 2, which is traveling below the plane of the planets, is expected to enter interstellar space in the coming years.

Have any human-made objects ever exited the solar system?

Sometimes, it is written that Voyager and Pioneers 10 and 11 have exited the solar system. Though all of these spacecraft have gone beyond all the planets of the solar system, they have not exited the solar system, based on the scientific definition. To leave the solar system, they need to pass beyond the Oort Cloud. Voyager 1 was the first-ever object to reach interstellar space on August 25, 2012 when it passed beyond the sun’s realm of plasma influence (the heliosphere) and it is the most distant human-made object. But it will take about 300 years for Voyager 1 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and possibly about 30,000 years to fly beyond it. Voyager 2 has not yet reached interstellar space or exited the heliosphere (bubble of solar plasma). Pioneer 10 and 11 are no longer transmitting science data back to Earth.

Are the distance counters rolling backwards?

Often they are, and it's actually not an error. This is caused by the fact that Earth moves around the sun more quickly than either Voyager spacecraft is departing from Earth. So, at certain times of the year, the distance between Earth and each Voyager actually decreases.

Did either of the Voyagers visit Pluto? Why didn't the Voyagers fly by Pluto?

Both Voyagers flew beyond the orbit of Pluto/Neptune in 1989, but neither flew by Pluto, which was elsewhere in its orbit at the time. It was never planned that the Voyagers would visit Pluto.

The original mission of Voyager was to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Two spacecraft were sent on slightly different paths, first to Jupiter and then, with gravity assists, on to Saturn. Voyager 1 could have been aimed on to Pluto, but exploration of Titan and the rings of Saturn was a primary scientific objective. This caused the trajectory to be diverted upward out of the ecliptic plane such that no further planetary encounters were possible for Voyager 1. Once Voyager 1 had successfully gathered data at Titan, Voyager 2 was allowed to go on to Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2, theoretically, could have been aimed for Pluto, but the aim point would have been inside the planet of Neptune - not very practical. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft visited Pluto in July 2015.

When we send spacecraft through the asteroid belt to the outer planets, how do we navigate the craft through the belt?

Pioneers 10 and 11 had preceded the Voyagers to Jupiter and the asteroid belt was a major concern for them. By the 1960's more than 3000 minor planets had been discovered and their orbits well determined. Even 50,000 minor bodies spread over the volume of space occupied by the asteroid belt would produce little direct danger, although a chance collision with an uncatalogued object was possible.

"While the largest of the asteroids were known and their orbits charted, many of the asteroids moved in unknown orbits. Although the risk of a spacecraft colliding with a charted asteroid was negligible, there was no way to estimate how many particles the size of a grain of sand might be present in the asteroid belt to collide with the spacecraft and seriously damage it". (From Pioneer, First to Jupiter, Saturn and Beyond, NASA SP-446, 1980) Only by going there could the danger be properly assessed - and Pioneer was first.

I was reading Dr. Carl Sagan's biography recently and found that he persuaded NASA administrators to turn one of the Voyager space probes around in order to take a last image of the solar system. Is this true? Do the craft send back any images of where they are?

I think you are referring to the series of photos taken by Voyager 1 on Valentine's Day 1990. These were the final images taken by either of the Voyager spacecraft.

On Feb. 14, 1990, after the spacecraft had passed the orbits of Neptune and Pluto, the cameras of Voyager 1 pointed back toward the sun and took a series of pictures of the sun and the planets, making the first ever 'portrait' of our solar system as seen from the outside.

I can not locate a copy of the Murmurs of Earth CD. Would you know of a vendor that might sell copies of it?

There was a book and CDROM published by Warner New Media in 1992. The book was a reprint of the Carl Sagan, et al, "Murmurs of Earth" that was originally published in 1978.

Carl Sagan and his colleagues did the assemblage of the information on the Voyager Golden Phonograph Record. Most of the material they used was copyrighted by the creators/owners and Sagan had to get copyright releases in order to assemble the original record. Subsequently, Warner Multimedia was able to obtain copyright releases for the 1992 version of "Murmurs of Earth", by Carl Sagan, et al and included all the sounds and songs on the CDROM set that accompanied the Warner New Media release of the book. We have included on the Voyager web site only that information for which we were able to get release, that's why everything, especially the music and the photos, is not there.

Unfortunately, the book and CDROM are no longer being published and are hard to find as a set. Your best bet to find one quickly may be in a public or university library or at a used bookstore. You might try used bookstores on line at http://www.bookfinder.com/ and search on: Author: Carl Sagan Title: Murmurs of Earth

You can find many instances where the book is for sale at prices around $40 US or less (most less than $20), but few (if any) include the CDROM. Look for availability of 1992 or later versions.

If there is intelligent life in our universe and they were not a peace loving species, wouldn't the information on the Voyager be enough to destroy human kind?

We have received almost nothing but praise for the inclusion of the Golden Phonograph Record on Voyager. We have also received lots of compliments on the contents, however, that praise rightly belongs to Carl Sagan and his colleagues who chose, assembled and got permission to use the material.

There were a few detractors, even as Sagan was formulating the disk.

In the Sagan, et al book, "Murmurs of Earth, the Voyager Interstellar Record", while describing some of his earlier work in sending messages from the Arecibo radar, spoke of two protests to that effort. Excerpts from that passage follow:

"One was from a few scientists who worried that we hadn't corrected for the speed of Earth in space in launching the message. ...............The other protest was a serious one, made by Sir Martin Ryle, a Nobel laureate and the Astronomer Royal of England. He wrote with great anxiety that he felt it was very hazardous to reveal our existence and location to the galaxy. For all we know, any creatures out there were malevolent or hungry, and once they knew of us, the might come to attack or eat us...........Many other less knowledgeable people had the same concerns.

"The fact is, for better or for worse, we have already announced our presence and location to the universe, and continue to do so every day. There is a sphere of radio transmission about thirty light years thick expanding outward at the speed of light, announcing to every star it envelops that the earth is full of people. Our television programs flood space with signals detectable at enormous distances by instruments not much greater than our own. It is a sobering thought that the first news of us may be the outcome of the Super Bowl.

"........... Whether or not Sir Martin Ryle is justified in his anxieties about revealing the location of our civilization is of course a debatable subject. Even so, it is too late to worry about it, so we might as well try to be friendly".

What were the most important discoveries of the Voyager space probes?

There are so many. Voyager is probably the most scientifically productive mission ever. It was only the second mission to visit Jupiter and Saturn and the only one to visit Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 and 2 obtained the first detailed profiles of the atmospheres of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and improved our understanding of the characteristics of the atmosphere of Jupiter. The Voyager spacecraft revealed the enormous amount of detail in the rings of Saturn, discovered the rings of Jupiter and provided the first detailed images of the rings of Uranus and Neptune. Voyager imaged Earth's moon and discovered twenty-three new moons at the outer planets. Voyager made significant improvements in the measurements of the magnetospheres at Jupiter and Saturn and provided the first measurements of the magnetospheres at Uranus and Neptune. The significance of the Voyager is the vast amount of new knowledge about our outer solar system it provided and the interest in further exploration it generated. That interest has resulted in the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Cassini mission to Saturn as well as the discovery of three new satellites at Saturn using Earth-based instruments.

Discovery of active volcanism on Io, a satellite of Jupiter, was probably the greatest surprise. It was the first time active volcanoes had been seen on another body in the solar system. It appears that activity on Io affects the entire Jovian system.

How big is Voyager? How much does it weigh?

The Voyager spacecraft weight, including hydrazine, at launch was 815 kg or about 1797 pounds. It was almost the weight and size of a sub-compact car. The current approximate weight of Voyager 1 is 733 kg and Voyager 2 is 735 kg. The difference is in the amount of hydrazine remaining. Hydrazine is being used to control the spacecrafts' attitude.

The spacecraft, without the various booms could fit inside a cube that is about 4 meters on each side. The approximate measurements of the different structures follow:

• The high gain antenna is 3.7 meters across (diameter).
• The magnetometer boom is 13 meters long
• The two Planetary Radio Astronomy and Plasma Wave antenna are 10 meters long.
• The Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator boom is 3.7 meters long
• The science instrument boom (near top of picture) is 3 meters long.
• The Bus Housing Electronics is about 1.8 meters in diameter.

The spacecraft height - from the top of the reflector structure in the middle of the high gain antenna to the bottom of the triangular feet below the bus housing electronics - is about 3.8 meters

The launch vehicle was a Titan III E/ Centaur rocket, which stands nearly 50 m (164 ft) high and weighs almost 635,000 kg (1.4 million lb).

Is it true that a sketch by Da Vinci is included in the "Message to the Universe" of Voyagers 1 and 2?

There are messages on the Voyagers in the form of a phonograph record and drawings on the cover that protects the record. However, Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man was not part of the Voyager Golden Phonograph Record, the Voyager cover, or the Pioneer plaque. Read more about the golden record .

What kind of computers are used on the Voyager spacecraft?

There are three different computer types on the Voyager spacecraft and there are two of each kind. Total number of words among the six computers is about 32K.

• Computer Command System (CCS) - 18-bit word, interrupt type processors (2) with 4096 words each of plated wire, non-volatile memory.
• Flight Data System (FDS) - 16-bit word machine (2) with modular memories and 8198 words each
• Attitude and Articulation Control System (AACS) - 18-bit word machines (2) with 4096 words each.

According to my calculations, that's a total of about 68KB, or small potatoes compared to today's microprocessors. We probably could perform all functions with one of today's boards and still have room for solid state data storage and much more fault detection software. We would still need a second unit for redundancy. Today's microprocessors are also much faster than the chips used on Voyager and a comparative system would use less electrical power. On the other hand, software might be more complicated as opposed to that used in an interrupt type system, but it would be much more capable and more flexible.

Let's look closer at the CCS. The CCS has two main functions: to carry out instructions from the ground to operate the spacecraft, and to be alert for a problem or malfunction and respond to it. Two identical 4096- word memories contain both fixed routines (about 2800 words) and a variable section (about 1290 words) for changing science sequences. The CCS issues commands to the AACS for movement of the scan platform or spacecraft maneuvers; to the FDS for changes in instrument configurations or telemetry rates and to numerous other subsystems within the spacecraft for specific actions. Fault-protection algorithms are also stored in the CCS, occupying roughly 10 percent of the CCS memory.

The main functions of the FDS are to collect data from, and controls the operations of, the scientific instruments; and to format engineering and science data for on-board storage and/or real-time transmission. The FDS also keeps the spacecraft "time" and provides frequency references to the instruments and other spacecraft subsystems.

The Voyager spacecraft computers are interrupt driven computer, similar to processors used in general purpose computers with a few special instructions for increased efficiency. The programming is a form of assembly language.

There is no clock chip, as such, in the spacecraft. The "clock" is really a counter, based on one of several electronically generated frequencies. These frequencies, based on a reference, generated by a very stable oscillator, are converted and fed to different locations in the spacecraft as synchronization signals, timers, counters, etc. The "clock" signal is part of the information telemetered to the ground and it is with ground software that we convert to day of year, time of day Greenwich Mean Time.

Voyager was built in-house at JPL; the computers were manufactured by General Electric to JPL specifications.

How fast are the Voyager computers?

Not very fast compared to today’s standards. The master clock runs at 4 MHz but the CPU’s clock runs at only 250 KHz. A typical instruction takes 80 microseconds, that is about 8,000 instructions per second. To put this in perspective, a 2013 top-of-the-line smartphone runs at 1.5 GHz with four or more processors yielding over 14 billion instructions per second.

What is the "direction" (constellation and/or star) both Voyager 1 & 2 and the Pioneers are "aimed" for, at present.

• Pioneer 10 is headed towards the constellation of Taurus (The Bull). It will take Pioneer over 2 million years to pass by one of the stars in the constellation.
• Pioneer 11 is headed toward the constellation of Aquila (The Eagle), Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 may pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years.
• Voyager 1 is escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.5 AU per year, 35 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the north, in the general direction of the Solar Apex (the direction of the Sun's motion relative to nearby stars). Voyager 1 will leave the solar system aiming toward the constellation Ophiuchus. In the year 40,272 AD, Voyager 1 will come within 1.7 light years of an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Bear or Little Dipper) called AC+79 3888.
• Voyager 2 is also escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.1 AU per year, 48 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the south toward the constellations of Sagitarrius and Pavo. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will come within about 1.7 light years of a star called Ross 248, a small star in the constellation of Andromeda.

Where can I find pictures of what the Voyager spacecraft took?

You can view pictures from Voyager and other missions at several locations:

• NSSDC Planetary Image Catalog http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat
• Planetary Photojournal http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/
• NSSDC Photo Gallery http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery

Is there some sort of plate with pictograms on the Voyager 1 spacecraft? Also is it similar to the Pioneer spacecraft plaque?

You asked about the Voyager plate. I'm assuming you mean the engravings on the aluminum record cover on each of the two Voyagers. You can see the record cover installed on the spacecraft bus . Also, from Carl Sagan's book, "Murmurs of Earth", here is a description of the cover engravings:

"In the upper left-hand corner is an easily recognized drawing of the phonograph record and the stylus carried with it. The stylus is in the correct position to play the record from the beginning. Written around it in binary arithmetic is the correct time of one rotation of the record, 3.6 seconds, expressed in time units of 0,70 billionths of a second, the time period associated with a fundamental transition of the hydrogen atom. The drawing indicates that the record should be played from the outside in. Below this drawing is a side view of the record and stylus, with a binary number giving the time to play one side of the record - about an hour.

"The information in the upper right-hand portion of the cover is designed to show how pictures are to be constructed from the recorded signals. The top drawing shows the typical signal that occurs at the start of a picture. The picture is made from this signal, which traces the picture as a series of vertical lines, similar to ordinary television (in which the picture is a series of horizontal lines). Picture lines 1, 2 and 3 are noted in binary numbers, and the duration of one of the "picture lines," about 8 milliseconds, is noted. The drawing immediately below shows how these lines are to be drawn vertically, with staggered "interlace" to give the correct picture rendition. Immediately below this is a drawing of an entire picture raster, showing that there are 512 vertical lines in a complete picture. Immediately below this is a replica of the first picture on the record to permit the recipients to verify that they are decoding the signals correctly. A circle was used in this picture to insure that the recipients use the correct ratio of horizontal to vertical height in picture reconstruction.

"The drawing in the lower left-hand corner of the cover is the pulsar map previously sent as part of the plaques on Pioneers 10 and 11. It shows the location of the solar system with respect to 14 pulsars, whose precise periods are given. The drawing containing two circles in the lower right-hand corner is a drawing of the hydrogen atom in its two lowest states, with a connecting line and digit 1 to indicate that the time interval associated with the transition from one state to the other is to be used as the fundamental time scale, both for the time given on the cover and in the decoded pictures.

"Electroplated onto the record's cover is an ultra-pure source of uranium-238 with a radioactivity of about 0.00026 microcuries. The steady decay of the uranium source into its daughter isotopes makes it a kind of radioactive clock. Half of the uranium-238 will decay in 4.51 billion years. Thus, by examining this two-centimeter diameter area on the record plate and measuring the amount of daughter elements to the remaining uranium-238, an extraterrestrial recipient of the Voyager spacecraft could calculate the time elapsed since a spot of uranium was placed aboard the spacecraft. This should be a check on the epoch of launch, which is also described by the pulsar map on the record cover."

Let’s Give It Up for Voyager 1, NASA’s Longest-Running Mission

Who you calling an “aging probe”? This spacecraft is back in business, baby.

The venerable spacecraft launched in 1977 and passed into interstellar space in 2012, becoming the first human-made object to accomplish that feat. Today Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, are NASA’s longest-running missions. But the title has been challenging to hold on to for spacecraft that were designed to operate for just four years. The aging probes are stuck in the deep cold of outer space, their nuclear power sources are producing ever less juice, and glitches are becoming increasingly common.

Most recently, Voyager 1 faced a communications issue that began in November 2023. “We’d gone from having a conversation with Voyager, with the 1’s and 0’s containing science data, to just a dial tone,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), of the spacecraft’s troubles in an interview with Scientific American in March. After more than six months of long-distance troubleshooting—Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles from Earth, and any signal takes more than 22.5 hours to travel from our planet to the spacecraft—mission personnel have finally coaxed Voyager 1 to gather and send home data with all its remaining science instruments, according to a NASA statement.

That tough little cluster of gadgets is out there, 15 billion miles away from its launch point, and soldiering on relying on software that’s 47 years old. It’s been 45 years since it flew past Jupiter, and 42 years since it encountered Saturn. It’s been in interstellar space since 2013. It’s still carrying the famous golden record, designed by the late Carl Sagan and containing greetings in 55 different languages, including Akkadian, which was spoken on Earth 6,000 years ago, as well as the sounds of crickets and frogs and “Johnny B. Goode.” The Riff goes interstellar. In 300 years, it will enter the Oort cloud, and it will take 30,000 years to pass through it. But for now, it’s sending back data again, doing some science, puttering away, staying in touch with all of us. Keep on keeping on, ya bucket o’bolts.

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America , and has been a working journalist since 1976. 

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