This Is What Voyager Saw Before Leaving the Solar System

Bright Side

For nearly 50 years, NASA's Voyager spacecraft have been traveling farther from Earth than any human-made object in history. They've given us our first close-up looks at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They've discovered volcanoes on Io, oceans on Europa, and geysers on Triton. They've sent back data that rewrote textbooks. And then they kept going. At the edge of the Solar System, they found something no one expected.   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  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  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  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  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.

Transcript

00:03In 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.

00:28Meanwhile, 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,

00:56or AU. One AU is the distance between Earth and the Sun. For comparison, Pluto orbits between

01:04about 30 to 50 AU from the Sun. The inner edge of the Oort cloud is thought to be much,

01:10much farther

01:11away. And the outer edge could be even further away. These distances are very hard to imagine.

01:18My little brain sputters when considering such. Now, we can also measure them in time instead of miles.

01:25NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft makes almost 1 million miles per day. At that speed, it would take about

01:32300 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. It might be

01:44the

01:44area where the Sun can still pull objects back toward it. And finally, we can define it by considering

01:50the heliopause, the boundary where the Sun's influence ends. You see, the Sun constantly sends

01:57out charged particles in a flow called the solar wind. This wind moves past all the planets and

02:04reaches about three times the distance to Pluto. The solar wind creates a giant bubble around the Sun

02:10and planets called the heliosphere. The heliopause is the outer edge of this bubble, where the solar wind

02:17meets the wind coming from other stars, called the interstellar wind. Here, the pressures from the

02:23solar wind and the interstellar wind balance each other. This causes the solar wind to turn back

02:29and flow along the tail of the heliosphere. As the heliosphere moves through space, it creates a bow

02:36shock, similar to the wave that forms in front of a ship moving through the water. So, depending on how

02:42you define it, by planets, by the Oort cloud, by gravity, or by the Sun's magnetic influence,

02:48the edge of the solar system can mean very different distances. But if we talk about the

02:54Voyagers, they came across something intense. It was something we could probably call a wall of fire,

03:01blazing heat, and intense temperatures. The two probes became the first spacecraft to travel beyond

03:07the heliosphere and cross the heliopause. Before the Voyager spacecraft reached the heliopause,

03:14scientists did not know exactly where this boundary would be. But the fact that the two spacecraft

03:20crossed it at different distances helped confirm some predictions about the heliopause.

03:26Scientists 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. And the fact that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2

03:39encountered the heliopause at different distances matched this expectation.

03:45The heliopause is not a hard edge or solid wall, but the nickname Wall of Fire actually matches the

03:52nature of that insane region. Both spacecraft measured extremely high temperatures there,

03:57around 30,000 to 50,000 Kelvin, or 54,000 to 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite these extreme

04:05temperatures, the spacecraft were safe. The 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 continue to send back data from beyond the

04:23heliopause. They are the only two spacecraft that have crossed this boundary so far. Together,

04:29they have already made several curious discoveries about space outside the solar system. For example,

04:37Voyager 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

04:48heliosphere. Before Voyager 2, scientists only had one measurement from Voyager 1, so they could not

04:55be sure whether this alignment was real or just a coincidence. Voyager 2 confirmed that the alignment

05:01was real. The 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

05:14beyond the solar system. Now, let's dig a little deeper into the Voyager program itself.

05:20It's made up of two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and, wait for it, Voyager 2. Even though Voyager 2 was

05:28launched first in August 1977, Voyager 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, exploring worlds no human will ever walk on,

05:43at least in the near future. The two Voyager spacecraft are nearly identical. Each has a large radio dish

05:50that is 12 feet across. This dish sends data back to Earth. They also have 16 thrusters to control their

05:57direction and make sure the dishes always point toward our planet. The thrusters use special hydrazine fuel,

06:04and the spacecraft's electronics are powered by thermoelectric generators that run on plutonium.

06:10Each Voyager carries 11 scientific instruments. About half of them were made specifically to study

06:16planets, and most of those are now turned off. The turned-off instruments include several cameras,

06:22spectrometers, and two radio-based experiments. During their long journeys through the solar system,

06:29the Voyagers took tens of thousands of images and measurements. This data has changed what we know

06:35about the outer planets. When the Voyagers reached Jupiter, they gave us our first detailed look at

06:41the planet's atmosphere. They showed that the great red spot was a huge storm spinning counterclockwise

06:47and interacting with smaller storms nearby. The Voyagers also discovered a faint, dusty ring around

06:54Jupiter. They studied Jupiter's moons, too. They found volcanoes on Io, saw linear features on Europa

07:01that hinted at a hidden ocean beneath its icy surface and confirmed that Ganymede is the largest moon in

07:08the solar system — larger even than Saturn's moon, Titan. Next, the spacecraft flew past Saturn.

07:15They measured the planet's atmosphere and studied its famous rings, discovering gaps and waves we still see

07:22today. Voyager 1 looked through Titan's thick haze and suggested that the moon might have liquid hydrocarbons on

07:30its surface. It was later confirmed by other missions. Voyager 1 also found three new moons orbiting

07:36Saturn — Atlas, Prometheus, and Pandora. So that's where she ended up. After Saturn, Voyager 1 continued out

07:45of the solar system, while Voyager 2 headed toward Uranus. Voyager 2 discovered 11 new moons and two new

07:53rings there. It also observed strange features, such as Uranus's unusual magnetic field and a

08:00surprisingly small temperature difference between its equators and poles.

08:05Voyager 2's final planetary stop was Neptune. It happened 12 years after leaving Earth. There,

08:12it discovered six small moons and rings around the planet. It studied Neptune's atmosphere and magnetic

08:17field and observed volcanic vents on Triton, Neptune's largest moon. After this, Voyager 2 joined

08:25Voyager 1 on its journey toward interstellar space. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in August 2012,

08:32and Voyager 2 joined it in November 2018. These missions helped scientists measure the edge of our

08:39solar system, about 11 billion miles from the Sun. The spacecraft still sends back data about this

08:46mysterious region. By the way, after its planetary visits, Voyager 1 took the famous pale blue dot

08:53photo of Earth from about 3.7 billion miles away. Today, Voyager 1 is about 15.8 billion miles from

09:02Earth,

09:02and Voyager 2 is about 13.1 billion miles away. Each Voyager carries a golden record — a time capsule

09:10from Earth for other civilizations it might meet. The record covers include instructions for playing it,

09:17a map showing Earth's location, and a drawing of a hydrogen atom. The records are cleverly plated with

09:23uranium, so the decay of the uranium could help discoverers figure out when the record was made.

09:30The records contain 115 images showing Earth, humans, animals, plants, and our solar system.

09:36They include natural sounds like waves and birdsong, greetings in 55 languages, brainwave recordings,

09:44and a mix of music, ranging from Beethoven to Chuck Berry and folk songs.

09:59On August 20, 1977, the most ambitious space mission took off from Earth.

10:06The main goal of Voyager 2 was to study the outer solar system up close.

10:11It became possible because of a rare alignment of planets. Voyager 2 was supposed to study all the

10:17gas giants of the solar system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Astronomers also hoped it would

10:23be able to find and explore the edge of the solar system. Since Voyager 2 was built for interstellar

10:29travel, the probe was equipped with a large 12-foot-wide antenna. It allowed the spaceship to send the data

10:35it

10:35gathered back to Earth. During its journey, the space probe discovered a 14th moon of Jupiter.

10:41Voyager 2 was the only spaceship to study all four giant planets from up close.

10:46It was the first human-made object to fly past Uranus, where it found two new rings and 10 new

10:52moons. Voyager 2 also flew by Neptune and noticed its great dark spot. That's a colossal spinning

10:59storm in the planet's southern hemisphere. The storm is the size of Earth and moves at a speed

11:04of 1500 miles per hour. These winds are the strongest ever recorded on any planet of the

11:10solar system. In the history of space exploration, only five spacecraft have managed to leave the

11:16gravitational pull of the solar system. Those were Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2,

11:22and new horizons. People launch thousands of objects into space. These objects easily overcome

11:28Earth's gravity. But the Sun is around 300,000 times as massive as our home planet. That's why

11:34its gravitational pull is way more difficult to find. Even more impressively, Voyager 2 is the

11:41second human-made object in history to reach the space between stars after passing through the

11:46heliosphere. That's a bubble of magnetic fields and particles produced by the Sun and protecting

11:52the solar system. Two years after its launch, Voyager 2 started transmitting the first images of

11:58Jupiter. The space probe provided scientists with much-needed information about Io and Europa,

12:04some of the largest of Jupiter's moons. Then the space mission passed by the gas giant itself.

12:09The distance between the spacecraft and the planet was around 400,000 miles. That's when the probe noticed

12:15some changes in the shape and color of the great red spot. It's an enormous long-lived storm system,

12:21like a hurricane on Earth, but much, much larger. Two years later, Voyager 2 reached Saturn. It

12:28discovered spokes and kinks in some of the planet's rings. While the spacecraft was flying behind and up

12:34past the gas giant, it passed through the plane of Saturn's rings. At that time, Voyager's speed was

12:40around eight miles per second. For several minutes, the probe was hit by thousands of micron-sized grains

12:46of dust. This kept shifting the probe's direction, and its control jets had to fire many times to

12:52stabilize the vehicle. After Voyager 2 explored Uranus and Neptune, it headed out of the solar system.

12:59Its instruments were put in low power to save energy. In August 2007, the spacecraft passed the terminal

13:07shot. It's the boundary marking the outer limit of the Sun's influence. Here, the solar wind slows down.

13:14In the summer of 2013, the probe reached interstellar space. Now, when it comes to sending

13:20and receiving signals in space, there are three factors you should keep in mind. Distance, power,

13:26and time. The farther away a spacecraft is, the farther a signal has to travel before it reaches it.

13:33And the longer it takes for this signal to catch up with the spacecraft. And when it finally gets

13:38there, it's extremely weak. Another problem is that once the spacecraft is launched, it can't be

13:43upgraded. It's literally stuck with the technology it was outfitted with. Plus, such spaceships as

13:49Voyager 2 are powered by radioactive fuel. When special material radioactively decays,

13:55it releases heat that gets converted into electricity. Unfortunately, the more material decays away,

14:01the less power the spacecraft has for receiving and transmitting radio signals.

14:07Despite this issue, we haven't lost the connection with Voyager 1 and 2.

14:12That's because new and more powerful technologies appear on Earth. Signals people send can reach much

14:17farther than before. That's why it was possible to stay in touch with Voyager 2, which entered

14:23interstellar space in 2018 and has already traveled almost 12 billion miles away from Earth.

14:29But in March 2020, the main piece of equipment that allowed scientists to exchange signals with the

14:34spaceship was switched off. After the communication with the spacecraft stopped, NASA spent around 11

14:41months upgrading its deep space network and installing new hardware. The DSN is an international array of

14:48huge radio antennas that help astronomers on Earth communicate with interplanetary missions.

14:53These antennas are located in California, Madrid, and Canberra. The one used to keep in touch with

14:59Voyager 2 is a 230-foot-wide dish in Canberra. This is the only equipment that can send commands that

15:05can

15:06reach the probe. This antenna, known as DSS-43, started operating in 1972, five years before Voyager 2 and

15:141 were launched. At that time, it was only 210 feet across. Since then, the dish has received a lot

15:21of

15:21repairs and upgrades. But these 11 months were the longest the antenna was offline. In October 2020,

15:28the antenna was finally ready for a trial after all the upgrades and repairs. The mission operators

15:34sent a set of commands to Voyager 2. And after many months of radio silence, the spacecraft returned the

15:40signal. The probe confirmed it had heard the call. After that, the spacecraft carried out the commands.

15:48While the dish was offline, the mission operators could actually receive scientific data and health

15:53updates from Voyager 2. Astronomers kept getting data from interstellar space, the region outside the

15:59sun's heliosphere. But they couldn't send any commands to the probe since it had traveled too far away

16:05from Earth. The upgraded antenna received two new radio transmitters. And it was done just in time.

16:12One of the transmitters, that was used to communicate with Voyager 2, hadn't been replaced in almost 50

16:17years. The antenna also got new cooling and heating equipment and other electronics necessary to support

16:23the advanced transmitters. Now, a curious thing about the Deep Space Network is that its radio antennas are

16:30positioned in a very precise way. They're spaced equally around the globe. This way, almost any

16:36spacecraft can stay in touch with at least one facility at all times. But Voyager 2 is an exception.

16:42In 1989, it made a close flyby of Triton, Neptune's moon. It was the only close encounter people had with

16:50the 8th planet of the solar system and its moon. By the way, Triton is the largest known object that

16:56is

16:56believed to be born in the Kuiper Belt. That's a donut-shaped ring around the sun full of icy objects.

17:02Voyager 2 discovered Neptune's ring system and its tiny inner moons. The probe also gathered a lot of

17:09amazing information about Triton. For example, it became clear that the moon is covered in cryovolcanoes.

17:16Instead of spewing molten rock, these volcanoes spit ice consisting of water, ammonia, and methane.

17:22When the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto more than 25 years later, it discovered the same

17:28phenomenon on the dwarf planet. Anyway, to make this detour, Voyager 2 had to travel over the gas

17:35giant's north pole. But this changed the probe's trajectory, deflecting it southward relative to the

17:41planes of the planets. Since then, Voyager 2 has been moving in that direction. And now, the spacecraft is

17:47so far away that it's out of reach of the radio antennas in the northern hemisphere, those in

17:52Madrid and California. This makes DSS-43, which is located in the southern hemisphere, the only dish

17:59powerful enough in broadcasting just the right frequency to send commands to Voyager 2.

18:05Voyager 1, the probe's faster-traveling twin, didn't change its trajectory. After passing by Saturn,

18:11it took a different path. That's why now it can easily communicate with the two facilities in the

18:17northern hemisphere. The upgrade the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex has gone through

18:22can also benefit other space missions. For example, the Mars Perseverance rover that landed on the Red

18:28Planet on February 18, 2021. The dish will also be crucial for exploring other planets and the Moon.

18:39That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it

18:44with your friends. Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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