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View Full Version : Voyager 1 detects 'hum' while in interstellar space: report



Teh One Who Knocks
05-11-2021, 10:33 AM
By Edmund DeMarche | Fox News


https://i.imgur.com/9UKghk9.png

Voyager 1, which is the farthest human-made object from Earth and the first to enter interstellar space, has been detecting a "faint, persistent hum" that scientists have attributed to interstellar gas.

Phys.org, citing research published in Nature Astronomy, reported that the spacecraft’s Plasma Wave System has picked up a "persistent signature produced by the tenuous near-vacuum of space."

James Cordes, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, reportedly described the sound as a "quiet or gentle rain."

"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," he said.

Stella Koch Ocker, a doctoral student at the university, who lead the research, said, "We're detecting the faint, persistent hum of interstellar gas. It's very faint and monotone, because it is in a narrow frequency bandwidth."

Voyager 1′s odyssey began in 1977 when the spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched on a tour of the gas giant planets of the solar system.

After beaming back dazzling postcard views of Jupiter’s giant red spot and Saturn’s shimmering rings, Voyager 2 hopscotched to Uranus and Neptune. Meanwhile, Voyager 1 used Saturn as a gravitational slingshot to power itself past Pluto.

It is now about 15 billion miles from Earth.

Voyager 1 is about the size of a subcompact car and carries instruments that study magnetic fields, cosmic rays and solar wind.

The Associated Pres contributed to this report

lost in melb.
05-11-2021, 04:56 PM
Still sending data back from 15 billion miles :tup:

lost in melb.
05-11-2021, 05:03 PM
...which is almost one light day.

Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light years away, so its roughly 1/1600 the distance to the nearest star.

At its current velocity such a journey would take roughly 73,000 year.

DemonGeminiX
05-11-2021, 07:44 PM
We are only in the early stages of our space-faring infancy. It's going to take centuries to cover some real ground. Imagine all the amazing things we're going to miss.

FBD
05-11-2021, 07:49 PM
that's what reincarnation is for ;)