- 2 days ago
Voyager spacecraft flew farther than anything humans ever built and ran into something scientists didn’t expect at all. At the edge of the solar system, instruments detected a strange boundary that acts almost like a cosmic wall. This region blocks and deflects particles in a way that feels unsettling, like the solar system hitting an invisible barrier. Researchers say it marks where the Sun’s influence finally loses its grip to interstellar space. And in this video, we’ll break down what Voyager found, what this “wall” really is, and why it sounds way scarier than it actually should be. Credit:
CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
Tidal Disruption: by lzkelley https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tidal_Disruption_and_Magnetic_Flux_Capture-_Fig.8_-_velocity_flow_field.webm
Magnetic Fields: by Animations for Physics and Astronomy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magnetic_Fields_and_Magnetic_Forces_on_Charges_in_a_Box.webm
Solar Wind Animations: by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - NASA Goddard/CIL/Josh Masters https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_Wind_Animations_(SVS14892_Atmospheric_Escape_4K_ProRes).webm
Magnetic Flux Through the Solar Atmosphere: by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - Liam Krauss, Dan Spicer, M. L. Rilee, R. Sudan https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:High_Resolution_2-D_Numerical_Simulation_of_Emergence_of_Magnetic_Flux_Through_the_Solar_Atmosphere_(SVS1418).webm
F ring animation framerate: by NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA07712_-_F_ring_animation_framerate_5.ogv
Cassini's 'Porthole' Movie: by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Hampton University https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA21441_-_Cassini%27s_%27Porthole%27_Movie_of_Saturn,_Figure_3.ogv
Voyager 2: by ZDF/Terra X/C. Haak/A.M. Wendlandt, Nikolai Holzach https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_grandeco_de_la_sunsistemo_scivolemo_-_zdf.webm
Artemis I Terminal Count: by NASA/Glenn Benson https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-20210624-RV-GEB01-0001-Terminal_Count_Launch_SIM_Firing_Room_1_2-3277934
Sentinel-6: by NASA https://images.nasa.gov/details/Sentinel-6%20Launch%20Footage
Introduction to the Heliopause: by Ryan Fitzgibbons, Walt Feimer, Chris Meaney, Swarupa Nune, Merav Opher NASA
Kennedy Space Center: by NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration https://images.nasa.gov/details/ksc_120805_lsp_anderson
IRIS Observes the Sun: by Goddard Space Flight Center / NASA https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20150626_IRIS_m11897_Sun
Voyager 2: by NASA/JPL-Caltech https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA21728 https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA21736
Three Views of Europa: by NASA/JPL-Caltech https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA24895
Lights In The Night: by NASA/JPL
Animation is created by Bright Side.
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
Tidal Disruption: by lzkelley https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tidal_Disruption_and_Magnetic_Flux_Capture-_Fig.8_-_velocity_flow_field.webm
Magnetic Fields: by Animations for Physics and Astronomy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magnetic_Fields_and_Magnetic_Forces_on_Charges_in_a_Box.webm
Solar Wind Animations: by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - NASA Goddard/CIL/Josh Masters https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_Wind_Animations_(SVS14892_Atmospheric_Escape_4K_ProRes).webm
Magnetic Flux Through the Solar Atmosphere: by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio - Liam Krauss, Dan Spicer, M. L. Rilee, R. Sudan https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:High_Resolution_2-D_Numerical_Simulation_of_Emergence_of_Magnetic_Flux_Through_the_Solar_Atmosphere_(SVS1418).webm
F ring animation framerate: by NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA07712_-_F_ring_animation_framerate_5.ogv
Cassini's 'Porthole' Movie: by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/Hampton University https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA21441_-_Cassini%27s_%27Porthole%27_Movie_of_Saturn,_Figure_3.ogv
Voyager 2: by ZDF/Terra X/C. Haak/A.M. Wendlandt, Nikolai Holzach https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_grandeco_de_la_sunsistemo_scivolemo_-_zdf.webm
Artemis I Terminal Count: by NASA/Glenn Benson https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-20210624-RV-GEB01-0001-Terminal_Count_Launch_SIM_Firing_Room_1_2-3277934
Sentinel-6: by NASA https://images.nasa.gov/details/Sentinel-6%20Launch%20Footage
Introduction to the Heliopause: by Ryan Fitzgibbons, Walt Feimer, Chris Meaney, Swarupa Nune, Merav Opher NASA
Kennedy Space Center: by NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration https://images.nasa.gov/details/ksc_120805_lsp_anderson
IRIS Observes the Sun: by Goddard Space Flight Center / NASA https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20150626_IRIS_m11897_Sun
Voyager 2: by NASA/JPL-Caltech https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA21728 https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA21736
Three Views of Europa: by NASA/JPL-Caltech https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA24895
Lights In The Night: by NASA/JPL
Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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Our Social Media:
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
https://www.depositphotos.com
https://www.shutterstock.com
https://www.eastnews.ru
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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00:00In 1977, NASA sent the Voyager spacecraft to explore the outer parts of the solar system
00:09and the space beyond. And at one point, the probes ran into something totally nightmarish.
00:16A blazing wall of fire, measuring temperatures from 54,000 to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
00:23Well, did the probes manage to survive these intense conditions? We'll find out soon.
00:29Meanwhile, there are several ways to think about where the solar system ends.
00:33One way is to say it ends where the planets stop. Another way is connected to the Oort cloud.
00:39That's a giant group of icy objects far beyond the planets, the farthest region of the solar system.
00:45It is extremely distant, maybe a quarter to halfway to the nearest star.
00:50To understand such huge distances, scientists often use something called the astronomical unit, or AU.
00:57One AU is the distance between Earth and the Sun.
01:02For comparison, Pluto orbits between about 30 to 50 AU from the Sun.
01:07The inner edge of the Oort cloud is thought to be much, much farther away.
01:12And the outer edge could be even further away.
01:16These distances are very hard to imagine.
01:18My little brain sputters when considering such.
01:21Now, we can also measure them in time instead of miles.
01:25NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft makes almost 1 million miles per day.
01:30At that speed, it would take about 300 years to reach the Oort cloud, and maybe 30,000 years to reach its outer edge.
01:38Now, one more way to define the edge of the solar system is by the Sun's gravity.
01:43It might be the area where the Sun can still pull objects back toward it.
01:47And finally, we can define it by considering the heliopause, the boundary where the Sun's influence ends.
01:55You see, the Sun constantly sends out charged particles in a flow called the solar wind.
02:01This wind moves past all the planets and reaches about three times the distance to Pluto.
02:07The solar wind creates a giant bubble around the Sun and planets called the heliosphere.
02:12The heliopause is the outer edge of this bubble, where the solar wind meets the wind coming from other stars, called the interstellar wind.
02:22Here, the pressures from the solar wind and the interstellar wind balance each other.
02:27This causes the solar wind to turn back and flow along the tail of the heliosphere.
02:32As the heliosphere moves through space, it creates a bow shock,
02:37similar to the wave that forms in front of a ship moving through the water.
02:40So, depending on how you define it, by planets, by the Oort cloud, by gravity, or by the Sun's magnetic influence,
02:49the edge of the solar system can mean very different distances.
02:53But if we talk about the Voyagers, they came across something intense.
02:57It was something we could probably call a wall of fire.
03:01Blazing heat and intense temperatures.
03:03The two probes became the first spacecraft to travel beyond the heliosphere and cross the heliopause.
03:11Before the Voyager spacecraft reached the heliopause, scientists did not know exactly where this boundary would be.
03:18But the fact that the two spacecraft crossed it at different distances helped confirm some predictions about the heliopause.
03:25Scientists did expect that the edge of the heliosphere could move as the Sun's activity changes,
03:32a bit like a lung expanding and contracting as we breathe.
03:36And the fact that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 encountered the heliopause at different distances matched this expectation.
03:45The heliopause is not a hard edge or solid wall.
03:48But the nickname, Wall of Fire, actually matches the nature of that insane region.
03:54Both spacecraft measured extremely high temperatures there,
03:58around 30,000 to 50,000 Kelvin, or 54,000 to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
04:04Despite these extreme temperatures, the spacecraft were safe.
04:08The particles in this region are very far apart.
04:11So collisions are rare, and not enough heat could reach the spacecraft to harm them.
04:16Nearly 50 years after their launch, Voyagers 1 and 2 continued to send back data from beyond the heliopause.
04:24They are the only two spacecraft that have crossed this boundary so far.
04:29Together, they have already made several curious discoveries about space outside the solar system.
04:35For example, Voyager 2's magnetic field measurements confirmed a surprising result from Voyager 1.
04:42Just beyond the heliopause, the magnetic field lines are aligned with the magnetic field inside the heliosphere.
04:50Before Voyager 2, scientists only had one measurement from Voyager 1,
04:54so they could not be sure whether this alignment was real or just a coincidence.
04:59Voyager 2 confirmed that the alignment was real.
05:02The magnetic fields inside and just outside the heliopause apparently run in parallel.
05:09These discoveries give scientists important information about the structure and behavior of space beyond the solar system.
05:16Now, let's dig a little deeper into the Voyager program itself.
05:21It's made up of two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and, wait for it, Voyager 2.
05:25Even though Voyager 2 was launched first, in August 1977,
05:31Voyager 1 took off just two weeks later on a faster, more direct path.
05:36These two spacecraft have been traveling for more than 40 years,
05:40exploring worlds no human will ever walk on, at least in the near future.
05:45The two Voyager spacecraft are nearly identical.
05:49Each has a large radio dish that is 12 feet across.
05:52This dish sends data back to Earth.
05:54They also have 16 thrusters to control their direction
05:58and make sure the dishes always point toward our planet.
06:01The thrusters use special hydrazine fuel,
06:04and the spacecraft's electronics are powered by thermoelectric generators that run on plutonium.
06:11Each Voyager carries 11 scientific instruments.
06:14About half of them were made specifically to study planets,
06:17and most of those are now turned off.
06:19The turned-off instruments include several cameras,
06:23spectrometers, and two radio-based experiments.
06:26During their long journeys through the solar system,
06:29the Voyagers took tens of thousands of images and measurements.
06:33This data has changed what we know about the outer planets.
06:37When the Voyagers reached Jupiter,
06:39they gave us our first detailed look at the planet's atmosphere.
06:42They showed that the great red spot was a huge storm,
06:46spinning counterclockwise and interacting with smaller storms nearby.
06:51The Voyagers also discovered a faint, dusty ring around Jupiter.
06:55They studied Jupiter's moons, too.
06:58They found volcanoes on Io,
07:00saw linear features on Europa that hinted at a hidden ocean beneath its icy surface,
07:05and confirmed that Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system,
07:10larger even than Saturn's moon, Titan.
07:13Next, the spacecraft flew past Saturn.
07:15They measured the planet's atmosphere and studied its famous rings,
07:19discovering gaps in waves we still see today.
07:23Voyager 1 looked through Titan's thick haze,
07:26and suggested that the moon might have liquid hydrocarbons on its surface.
07:31It was later confirmed by other missions.
07:33Voyager 1 also found three new moons orbiting Saturn,
07:37Atlas, Prometheus, and Pandora.
07:39So that's where she ended up.
07:42After Saturn, Voyager 1 continued out of the solar system,
07:46while Voyager 2 headed toward Uranus.
07:49Voyager 2 discovered 11 new moons and two new rings there.
07:54It also observed strange features,
07:56such as Uranus's unusual magnetic field
07:59and a surprisingly small temperature difference between its equators and poles.
08:05Voyager 2's final planetary stop was Neptune.
08:08It happened 12 years after leaving Earth.
08:11There, it discovered six small moons and rings around the planet.
08:15It studied Neptune's atmosphere and magnetic field,
08:18and observed volcanic vents on Triton, Neptune's largest moon.
08:22After this, Voyager 2 joined Voyager 1 on its journey toward interstellar space.
08:29Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in August 2012,
08:33and Voyager 2 joined it in November 2018.
08:36These missions helped scientists measure the edge of our solar system,
08:40about 11 billion miles from the Sun.
08:43The spacecraft still sends back data about this mysterious region.
08:47By the way, after its planetary visits,
08:51Voyager 1 took the famous pale blue dot photo of Earth
08:54from about 3.7 billion miles away.
08:58Today, Voyager 1 is about 15.8 billion miles from Earth,
09:02and Voyager 2 is about 13.1 billion miles away.
09:07Each Voyager carries a golden record,
09:10a time capsule from Earth for other civilizations it might meet.
09:14The record covers include instructions for playing it,
09:17a map showing Earth's location,
09:19and a drawing of a hydrogen atom.
09:21The records are cleverly plated with uranium,
09:24so the decay of the uranium could help discoverers figure out
09:28when the record was made.
09:30The records contain 115 images showing Earth,
09:33humans, animals, plants, and our solar system.
09:37They include natural sounds like waves and birdsong,
09:40greetings in 55 languages,
09:43brainwave recordings,
09:44and a mix of music,
09:45ranging from Beethoven to Chuck Berry and folk songs.
09:50That's it for today.
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