Tag

Interstellar Space

All articles tagged with #interstellar space

space21 hours ago•23 min saved

New Horizons Wakes to Edge of Solar System

NASA’s New Horizons has awakened from a 321‑day hibernation about 64 astronomical units from Earth (roughly 10 billion km) and will begin sending back a year’s worth of stored data while studying the outer heliosphere’s termination shock—the boundary where the solar wind slows and blends with interstellar material. Having passed Pluto and Arrokoth, the probe is now venturing farther into the Kuiper Belt region and beyond, with no new target identified; its path could see it leaving the Kuiper Belt around 2028–2029 as it continues toward interstellar space, with an approximate nine‑hour one‑way radio link and a current “green” status from mission control.

via ZME Science|

#heliosphere #interstellar-space #kuiper-belt

science2 days ago•3 min saved

New Horizons Edges Toward the Sun’s Outer Boundary

NASA’s New Horizons, waking from a year‑long hibernation 5.9 billion miles from Earth, continues its Kuiper Belt voyage and is aimed at the solar system’s outer boundary. Scientists estimate it will encounter the termination shock—the point where the solar wind slows on its way to interstellar space—between 2029 and 2040, with the heliosphere expanding and contracting over the solar cycle and potentially causing multiple crossings before the craft leaves the solar system.

via Gizmodo|

#heliosphere #interstellar-space #nasa

science3 days ago•13 min saved

Voyager 1 Reaches One-Light-Day Distance From Earth, Triggering a 24-Hour Radio Round Trip

By November 2026 Voyager 1 will be about one light-day from Earth, meaning a signal traveling at light speed would take 24 hours to reach it—turning even simple commands into a multi-day process and highlighting how far the aging probe has drifted into interstellar space while still being managed from Earth.

via Space Daily|

#deep-space-network #interstellar-space #nasa

science3 days ago•50 min saved

Voyager 1 Nears One Light-Day From Earth, Milestone in Space Travel

NASA's Voyager 1 is set to reach a distance of one light-day from Earth on November 18, 2026, making it the farthest human-made object and highlighting nearly 50 years of deep-space exploration; Voyager 2 remains active in interstellar space with a shrinking instrument suite, hundreds of times farther from Earth, and both missions continue to transmit data as power wanes, offering unique insights into the solar system's boundary and beyond.

via Yahoo|

#interstellar-space #nasa #one-light-day

sciencespace3 days ago•4 min saved

Voyager 1 Reaches One-Light-Day Milestone After 50 Years

NASA's Voyager 1 is set to reach a distance of one light-day from Earth on November 18, 2026, making it the farthest human-made object as it continues its nearly 50-year journey; data still travels back to Earth with about a 23-hour delay, and the probe carries on with a small set of instruments while power wanes. Voyager 2, launched shortly before its twin, is also in interstellar space at about 21.3 billion miles from Earth, with some instruments powered down to conserve energy.

via bgr.com|

#interstellar-space #milestone #nasa

space4 days ago•15 min saved

Voyager 1’s Dormant Thruster Gets a Second Chance at the Edge of Space

NASA revived Voyager 1’s long-dormant primary roll thrusters in 2025 from 15 billion miles away, restoring an essential attitude-control option that keeps the high-gain antenna pointed at Earth. The thrusters had been considered dead since 2004, and firing them carried the risk of a hazardous explosion if the heaters weren’t warmed first. Because signals take about a day to reach Voyager and another to return, the team had to carefully sequence the test before a planned Deep Space Network blackout, effectively buying time as power wanes and propellant residue clogs other thrusters. The achievement highlights how a 1977 mission can outlive its expectations and continue to listen from interstellar space.

via Space Daily|

#deep-space-network #interstellar-space #nasa

science6 days ago•11 min saved

Voyager 1 Endures at the Edge of Space on Tiny Nuclear Power

Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is now about 25 billion kilometres from Earth, so far that radio signals take more than 22 hours to reach it; it continues to send back data from interstellar space using a nuclear power source the size of a car battery. Its plutonium generators now deliver ~230 watts (down from ~470 W at launch), fading about 4 watts per year, leading NASA to progressively shut down nonessential systems to extend the mission into the 2030s. Two instruments remain active as it drifts beyond the heliopause, with signals traveling via NASA’s Deep Space Network, a faint whisper from humanity's farthest probe.

via Space Daily|

#deep-space-network #heliopause #interstellar-space

space18 days ago•14 min saved

Car-sized Voyager 1 keeps moving outward past Pluto, outlasting its builders

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1—roughly the size of a small car—still sails outward at about 17 km/s, now well beyond Pluto’s orbit at 166 AU. It communicates at light speed, with signals taking over 23 hours to reach Earth, while its power has dwindled to ~250 watts and only two instruments remain active. The mission has outlived its original four-year plan, outlasting most of its creators, and it carries the Golden Record as a lasting message as it drifts through interstellar space for billions of years.

via Space Daily|

#golden-record #interstellar-space #jpl

space18 days ago•10 min saved

Voyager 1 Keeps Coasting Toward a Light-Day Milestone

Voyager 1, launched in 1977, remains the fastest and most distant human-made object, cruising at about 17 km/s with no engine. It has crossed the heliopause into interstellar space and sits roughly 25 billion kilometers from the Sun (about 170 AU). NASA expects it to reach about one light-day from Earth by November 2026, a distance at which light takes a day to reach Voyager and come back. Power is fading—from an initial ~470 watts to well under half—so engineers are shutting instruments offline; only two remain as the team plans further power-saving steps. When power runs out, Voyager 1 will go quiet but continue coasting for thousands of years, not aimed at any particular star (in ~40,000 years it will pass about 1.6 light-years from Gliese 445).

via Space Daily|

#heliopause #interstellar-space #light-day

technology19 days ago•22 min saved

Voyager 1: A Four-Year Mission That Outlived Its Power

Launched in 1977 for a four‑year mission, Voyager 1 is now the farthest human‑made object, roughly 15 billion miles away; by November 2026 a radio signal will take 24 hours to reach it. With dwindling plutonium power and only two instruments still active, NASA’s JPL team performs a staged ‘triage’—turning off heaters and reviving long‑dead thrusters—to keep the craft alive into the 2030s, relying on a tiny ground crew and a two‑day command loop while the Golden Record sails through interstellar space.

via 19FortyFive|

#interstellar-space #nasa #power-constraints

space20 days ago•10 min saved

NASA patches Voyager 1 from interstellar space with a remote software rewrite

In late 2023 Voyager 1 began returning unreadable data from interstellar space due to a corrupted memory chip in its flight data subsystem. Engineers rewired the affected software by splitting it into small sections and relocating them to intact memory, effectively rehouseing the code to run around the damaged area. The fix was transmitted across more than 24 billion kilometres and, after about 45 hours, the patch was confirmed to work. The memory issue affected roughly 3% of the subsystem, and the repair did not add power or fuel, but bought time for the oldest spacecraft to continue reporting from a distant region—keeping it alive into the 2030s.

via Space Daily|

#interstellar-space #nasa #remote-maintenance

science1 month ago•10 min saved

Voyager 1's two-day command cycle as it drifts toward interstellar space

Voyager 1 is about 16 billion miles from Earth and moving away from the Sun, so a command sent at the speed of light takes roughly 22.5 hours to reach it and the reply takes about 22.5 hours to return, creating a two‑day command‑and‑response cadence. After a memory‑chip failure in 2023, a 2024 patch and careful line‑by‑line code review restored coherent data transmission, and the current data rate is about 160 bits per second as the probe slowly powers down its instruments. By November 2026 Voyager 1 will become the first human‑made object to pass one light‑day from Earth, while Voyager 2 remains on a longer, slower path toward similar autonomy and fading transmissions.

via Space Daily|

#interstellar-space #nasa-jpl #science

science1 month ago•9 min saved

Voyager 1 closes in on one-light-day distance as Earth awaits a full-day signal round-trip

Voyager 1’s communications have grown so distant that one-way signals now take over 23 hours to reach Earth, with projections toward roughly 24 hours by late 2026. As the probe cruises outward at about 17 km/s, the data arriving on Earth corresponds to a position the spacecraft has already left, effectively making the telemetry a late snapshot from interstellar space. The milestone of one light-day (about 25.9 billion km) will be reached around November 2026, turning every command a full day to arrive and a full day for a reply. The data stream remains slim (roughly 160 bits per second), and only two instruments on Voyager 1 stay active, with power-management decisions looming as NASA relies on DSN facilities like Canberra’s DSS-43 for ground control. Voyager 2, on a different path, won’t reach this mark for years, and both probes continue to operate as the few direct data sources from beyond the heliosphere, even as power fades and operations tighten.

via Space Daily|

#deep-space-network #interstellar-space #nasa

science2 months ago•7 min saved

NASA Extends Voyager 1’s Deep-Space Mission by Shutting Down a 49-Year-Old Sensor

To conserve dwindling power from its plutonium RTG, NASA turned off the Low-energy Charged Particles (LECP) instrument on Voyager 1 after 49 years, a decision that preserves essential systems and could buy roughly one more year of operation in interstellar space; a small portion of LECP will stay active, and engineers plan a broader, lower-energy 'Big Bang' power-saving approach to be tested on Voyager 2 in 2026 and possibly applied to Voyager 1 afterward.

via SciTechDaily|

#interstellar-space #jpl #lecp

science2 months ago•42 min saved

Voyager 1 May Get a Lifeline With Bold Power-Swap to Extend Interstellar Mission

Voyager 1 has shut down its Low-energy Charged Particles (LECP) instrument to conserve power as it travels farther into interstellar space. NASA plans a bold, one-shot power-swap—a “Big Bang” fix—by turning off some systems and switching to lower-power options, first on Voyager 2 and then on Voyager 1, to keep two remaining instruments alive for about a year and potentially extend the mission toward its 50th anniversary, with the hope LECP could be revived later if power allows.

via Yahoo|

#big-bang-fix #interstellar-space #lecp