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At the very edge of the Solar System, humanity’s oldest spacecraft are still sending data back to Earth. Strange signals, unexpected behavior, and unexplained readings have raised new questions about what Voyager 1 is encountering far beyond the planets. These transmissions challenge what scientists thought they knew about interstellar space. The farther Voyager travels, the less familiar the environment becomes. Some discoveries hint at boundaries we barely understand. Others suggest space is far more dynamic than once believed. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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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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00:00Voyager 1, which has been traveling through interstellar space for more than 45 years
00:05and is trailing a long gray beard by this time.
00:08Nah, not really.
00:09It suddenly began to send strange signals to Earth.
00:12Even more bizarre, there are no signs that the probe has broken or anything.
00:17Scientists from NASA are desperately trying to find the reason.
00:21So, what's happened exactly?
00:23First of all, let me tell you a bit more about Voyager 1 and its long, long journey.
00:28Voyager 1 is an American space probe.
00:31Scientists from NASA sent it into space on September 5, 1977.
00:37Voyager's goal was to explore the outer planets of our solar system, namely Jupiter and Saturn.
00:43Initially, scientists assumed that the mission would take about five years.
00:47Ha ha, the joke's on them.
00:49The probe exceeded all expectations.
00:51Not only did it fulfill its mission, but it's still working for much longer than expected.
00:56Voyager 1 has been wandering around space for more than 45 years.
01:02It's hard to estimate what Voyager 1 has done for science.
01:05Firstly, it successfully sent a lot of photos of Jupiter and Saturn to Earth.
01:10By the way, you can even check out these photos yourself.
01:13All of them are published on the NASA website.
01:15Thanks to Voyager, we also discovered several new moons of Jupiter and a previously unknown system of its rings.
01:23We learned that Jupiter's famous red spot is actually a giant super-fast storm.
01:29And after leaving Neptune's orbit behind, Voyager also sent a lot of important data about interstellar plasma.
01:36So, Voyager 1 successfully proved to scientists how useful it was.
01:41After that, it happily headed for its next goal, the Kuiper Belt and the heliosphere.
01:46The Kuiper Belt is a ring of icy bodies that extends from Neptune to a distance of approximately 50 AU from the Sun.
01:54It's kind of similar to the asteroid belt, but about 20 times wider and 100 times heavier.
01:59And the heliosphere is an area around the Sun where the pressure of the solar wind is balanced with the pressure of interstellar gas.
02:08Yeah, I know, it sounds like some hard scientific stuff.
02:11Just keep in mind that this data really helps us understand the universe as a whole.
02:16So, this is Voyager's last task, to tell us more about interstellar space.
02:21The probe has already sent us more than 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system from a distance of over 4 billion miles from Earth.
02:31Scientists use these frames to make a big colored picture.
02:34The photo was called the pale blue dot.
02:37And you've probably already guessed what that dot is.
02:40Yep, that's what our Earth looks like through Voyager's eyes.
02:43This photo clearly shows how tiny we really are and how precious and fragile our planet is.
02:51But Voyager 1 also has another, even more important mission.
02:55To tell other civilizations about us humans.
02:58You might have heard about the famous Voyager Golden Records.
03:02People created many audio and video files and added them to these records.
03:07There are a few sections.
03:08The first one contains Hello in 55 languages, including ancient and extinct ones.
03:15Almost 80% of the recordings are different musical pieces, like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Stravinsky.
03:21Folk music from different countries and ages, and a bit of the blues, like famous songs by Louis Armstrong and Chuck Berry.
03:29The remaining 20% of the recordings contain different human voices, sounds of nature and animals, as well as 116 images encoded as audio signals.
03:40There are also recordings of speeches by Kurt Waldheim, a former U.N. Secretary General, and Jimmy Carter, a former U.S. President.
03:48These are just some friendly messages.
03:51In addition to the records, scientists also packed a needle for playing them.
03:56Don't worry, they also left a simple drawing that showed how to use all this stuff and how to translate the sounds into pictures.
04:02They added Earth's coordinates, which they created using a pulsar map.
04:08It shows the position of the sun in the Milky Way.
04:11The record was packed in an aluminum case and covered with gold to protect it against radiation and cosmic dust.
04:18Carrying this record, Voyager 1 set off on its long journey.
04:22And it has already traveled quite a distance, I'd say.
04:25Right now, Voyager 1 is 154 astronomical units away from us.
04:30That's about 14.5 billion miles.
04:33This makes it the most remote human-made object.
04:36Initially, this title belonged to the Pioneer 10 mission, but Voyager overtook it in 1998.
04:43What a bargain for NASA.
04:44It's way beyond its Best Buy date.
04:46Voyager 1 is actually so cool that it even overtook its twin brother, Voyager 2, which, by the way, had been sent into space two weeks earlier.
04:56Voyager 1 moves at a speed of 9.7 miles per second.
05:00That's 35,000 miles per hour.
05:02Even the fastest sports car in the world travels at a speed of only 305 miles per hour.
05:08So it's hard to imagine the speed of Voyager.
05:11Anyway, at the moment, Voyager is heading to the borders of the Oort cloud.
05:17That's the name of a hypothetical layer of icy objects surrounding the solar system.
05:22Astronomers haven't confirmed its existence yet, but they're almost sure it's there.
05:27After all, even black holes were only a theory not so long ago.
05:32Unfortunately, Voyager 1 won't return back to the solar system.
05:35It'll keep in touch with Earth at least until 2025.
05:38But eventually, we'll lose the connection with it for good.
05:43In 300 years, it'll reach the borders of the Oort cloud.
05:47And in 30,000 years, I won't be around then, it'll finally leave the solar system.
05:52And if nothing happens to it along the way, in another 10,000 years,
05:57Voyager 1 will approach red dwarf star Gliese 445 in the giraffe constellation.
06:03In the future, the probe will probably keep wandering around the Milky Way galaxy.
06:07And now, let's finally discuss the mysterious signals part.
06:12So, what happened?
06:14Well, a rather unusual thing.
06:16NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which monitors and controls both Voyagers, reported this problem in May 2022.
06:24Our veteran spacecraft suddenly began sending strange data to Earth.
06:28The whole situation puzzles even engineers from NASA.
06:31Now, I bet you're thinking, ah, come on, the thing just probably broke down or something.
06:37But the truth is that Voyager 1 is totally fine.
06:40It works as usual, receives and carries out commands from Earth, and collects and sends scientific data.
06:46But the readings of the AACS, which stands for Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem,
06:53don't show what is actually happening to Voyager anymore.
06:56This system supports the orientation of the probe in space and helps it keep in touch with Earth.
07:02So, basically, the signals mean that the probe's orientation in space is messed up.
07:07But scientists claim this is not the case.
07:10They know that the source of the antenna signal remains in the same position relative to Earth as planned.
07:17The problem hasn't triggered any of the onboard fall protection systems.
07:20The probe hasn't even entered safe mode.
07:23So, what in the world, or universe, is going on?
07:27Suzanne Dodd, the head of the project, says that the problem is not actually that unexpected.
07:32After all, Voyager 1 is already 45 years old.
07:36The expert admits that what's happening to the probe remains a mystery to them.
07:41They don't know exactly where the incorrect data is coming from.
07:45And it's unclear how this will affect the operation of Voyager.
07:49She adds, though, that it's not that surprising, considering that the probe is in interstellar space.
07:54There's a very high level of radiation there.
07:57No spacecraft has ever reached that point before.
08:00Scientists from NASA say they'll keep closely monitoring the data coming from Voyager 1 until they figure out the problem.
08:08If they find it, the management team will try to fix it.
08:11Otherwise, the team will have to adapt to the new conditions.
08:15It might not be enough just to understand the problem, though.
08:18It takes as much as 20 hours and 33 minutes to receive the signal from Voyager.
08:23And it takes the same amount of time to respond to it.
08:27Well, at least the second spacecraft, Voyager 2, is totally fine.
08:31Even though it's also currently in interstellar space at a distance of 12 billion miles from Earth.
08:38Anyway, we can only wait for news and hope that the problem will be resolved.
08:42I actually wonder how much longer can Voyager 1 last?
08:46Will it be able to fly to the borders of the Oort cloud in 300 years?
08:50What do you think?
08:51I'd like to hear your thoughts in the comments.
08:58In 1977, NASA sent the Voyager spacecraft to explore the outer parts of the solar system and the space beyond.
09:06And at one point, the probes ran into something totally nightmarish.
09:11A blazing wall of fire, measuring temperatures from 54,000 to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
09:18Well, did the probes manage to survive these intense conditions?
09:22We'll find out soon.
09:24Meanwhile, there are several ways to think about where the solar system ends.
09:28One way is to say it ends where the planets stop.
09:31Another way is connected to the Oort cloud.
09:34That's a giant group of icy objects far beyond the planets.
09:38The farthest region of the solar system.
09:40It is extremely distant, maybe a quarter to halfway to the nearest star.
09:46To understand such huge distances, scientists often use something called the astronomical unit, or AU.
09:53One AU is the distance between Earth and the Sun.
09:57For comparison, Pluto orbits between about 30 to 50 AU from the Sun.
10:02The inner edge of the Oort cloud is thought to be much, much farther away.
10:07And the outer edge could be even further away.
10:11These distances are very hard to imagine.
10:14My little brain sputters when considering such.
10:17Now, we can also measure them in time instead of miles.
10:20NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft makes almost 1 million miles per day.
10:25At that speed, it would take about 300 years to reach the Oort cloud, and maybe 30,000 years to reach its outer edge.
10:33Now, one more way to define the edge of the solar system is by the Sun's gravity.
10:38It might be the area where the Sun can still pull objects back toward it.
10:43And finally, we can define it by considering the heliopause, the boundary where the Sun's influence ends.
10:50You see, the Sun constantly sends out charged particles in a flow called the solar wind.
10:57This wind moves past all the planets and reaches about three times the distance to Pluto.
11:03The solar wind creates a giant bubble around the Sun and planets called the heliosphere.
11:08The heliopause is the outer edge of this bubble, where the solar wind meets the wind coming from other stars, called the interstellar wind.
11:16Here, the pressures from the solar wind and the interstellar wind balance each other.
11:22This causes the solar wind to turn back and flow along the tail of the heliosphere.
11:27As the heliosphere moves through space, it creates a bow shock, similar to the wave that forms in front of a ship moving through the water.
11:36So, depending on how you define it, by planets, by the Oort cloud, by gravity, or by the Sun's magnetic influence,
11:43the edge of the solar system can mean very different distances.
11:48But if we talk about the Voyagers, they came across something intense.
11:52It was something we could probably call a wall of fire, blazing heat, and intense temperatures.
11:59The two probes became the first spacecraft to travel beyond the heliosphere and cross the heliopause.
12:06Before the Voyager spacecraft reached the heliopause, scientists did not know exactly where this boundary would be.
12:13But the fact that the two spacecraft crossed it at different distances helped confirm some predictions about the heliopause.
12:21Scientists did expect that the edge of the heliosphere could move as the Sun's activity changes,
12:27a bit like a lung expanding and contracting as we breathe.
12:31And the fact that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 encountered the heliopause at different distances matched this expectation.
12:39The heliopause is not a hard edge or solid wall, but the nickname Wall of Fire actually matches the nature of that insane region.
12:49Both spacecraft measured extremely high temperatures there, around 30,000 to 50,000 Kelvin, or 54,000 to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
12:59Despite these extreme temperatures, the spacecraft were safe.
13:03The particles in this region are very far apart, so collisions are rare, and not enough heat could reach the spacecraft to harm them.
13:12Nearly 50 years after their launch, Voyagers 1 and 2 continued to send back data from beyond the heliopause.
13:19They are the only two spacecraft that have crossed this boundary so far.
13:24Together, they have already made several curious discoveries about space outside the solar system.
13:30For example, Voyager 2's magnetic field measurements confirmed a surprising result from Voyager 1.
13:37Just beyond the heliopause, the magnetic field lines are aligned with the magnetic field inside the heliosphere.
13:45Before Voyager 2, scientists only had one measurement from Voyager 1,
13:49so they could not be sure whether this alignment was real or just a coincidence.
13:54Voyager 2 confirmed that the alignment was real.
13:57The magnetic fields inside and just outside the heliopause apparently run in parallel.
14:04These discoveries give scientists important information about the structure and behavior of space beyond the solar system.
14:11Now, let's dig a little deeper into the Voyager program itself.
14:16It's made up of two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and, wait for it, Voyager 2.
14:21Even though Voyager 2 was launched first, in August 1977,
14:26Voyager 1 took off just two weeks later on a faster, more direct path.
14:31These two spacecraft have been traveling for more than 40 years,
14:35exploring worlds no human will ever walk on, at least in the near future.
14:40The two Voyager spacecraft are nearly identical.
14:44Each has a large radio dish that is 12 feet across.
14:47This dish sends data back to Earth.
14:49They also have 16 thrusters to control their direction and make sure the dishes always point toward our planet.
14:57The thrusters use special hydrazine fuel,
15:00and the spacecraft's electronics are powered by thermoelectric generators that run on plutonium.
15:06Each Voyager carries 11 scientific instruments.
15:09About half of them were made specifically to study planets,
15:12and most of those are now turned off.
15:15The turned-off instruments include several cameras, spectrometers, and two radio-based experiments.
15:21During their long journeys through the solar system,
15:24the Voyagers took tens of thousands of images and measurements.
15:28This data has changed what we know about the outer planets.
15:32When the Voyagers reached Jupiter, they gave us our first detailed look at the planet's atmosphere.
15:38They showed that the Great Red Spot was a huge storm spinning counterclockwise
15:42and interacting with smaller storms nearby.
15:46The Voyagers also discovered a faint, dusty ring around Jupiter.
15:50They studied Jupiter's moons, too.
15:52They found volcanoes on Io, saw linear features on Europa that hinted at a hidden ocean beneath its icy surface,
16:00and confirmed that Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system,
16:05larger even than Saturn's moon, Titan.
16:08Next, the spacecraft flew past Saturn.
16:11They measured the planet's atmosphere and studied its famous rings,
16:15discovering gaps in waves we still see today.
16:18Voyager 1 looked through Titan's thick haze,
16:21and suggested that the moon might have liquid hydrocarbons on its surface.
16:26It was later confirmed by other missions.
16:28Voyager 1 also found three new moons orbiting Saturn — Atlas, Prometheus, and Pandora.
16:35So that's where she ended up.
16:37After Saturn, Voyager 1 continued out of the solar system,
16:41while Voyager 2 headed toward Uranus.
16:44Voyager 2 discovered 11 new moons and two new rings there.
16:48It also observed strange features, such as Uranus's unusual magnetic field
16:54and a surprisingly small temperature difference between its equators and poles.
17:00Voyager 2's final planetary stop was Neptune.
17:03It happened 12 years after leaving Earth.
17:06There, it discovered six small moons and rings around the planet.
17:10It studied Neptune's atmosphere and magnetic field,
17:13and observed volcanic vents on Triton, Neptune's largest moon.
17:17After this, Voyager 2 joined Voyager 1 on its journey toward interstellar space.
17:24Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in August 2012,
17:28and Voyager 2 joined it in November 2018.
17:32These missions helped scientists measure the edge of our solar system,
17:35about 11 billion miles from the Sun.
17:38The spacecraft still sends back data about this mysterious region.
17:42By the way, after its planetary visits,
17:46Voyager 1 took the famous pale blue dot photo of Earth
17:49from about 3.7 billion miles away.
17:53Today, Voyager 1 is about 15.8 billion miles from Earth,
17:57and Voyager 2 is about 13.1 billion miles away.
18:02Each Voyager carries a golden record,
18:05a time capsule from Earth for other civilizations it might meet.
18:08The record covers include instructions for playing it,
18:12a map showing Earth's location,
18:14and a drawing of a hydrogen atom.
18:17The records are cleverly plated with uranium,
18:19so the decay of the uranium could help discoverers figure out
18:23when the record was made.
18:25The records contain 115 images showing Earth,
18:29humans, animals, plants, and our solar system.
18:31They include natural sounds like waves and birdsong,
18:36greetings in 55 languages,
18:38brainwave recordings,
18:39and a mix of music,
18:41ranging from Beethoven to Chuck Berry and folk songs.
18:45That's it for today.
18:46So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
18:48then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
18:51Or if you want more,
18:52just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
18:55So let's get started.
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