Before its computer crashed, venerable NASA probe may have entered mysterious new region beyond the Solar System
Voyager 1, the first earthly object to exit the Solar System, may be traversing a plasma cloud from another star.It was the ultimate remote IT service, spanning 24 billion kilometers of space to fix an antiquated, hobbled computer built in the 1970s. Voyager 1, one of the celebrated twin spacecraft that was the first to reach interstellar space, has finally resumed beaming science data back to Earth after a 6-month communications blackout, NASA.
Prior to the interruption, Voyager 1 had been traversing a mysterious new region of interstellar space—perhaps an enormous swell of pressure or a cloud of ancient plasma—and scientists are eager to resume the investigation. That’s what NASA thinks might have happened last November, when Voyager 1 suddenly started to transmit a string of nonsensical binary code. An emergency team of engineers tried to pinpoint the issue, sending a few cautious commands at a time and waiting 45 hours for a reply from the probe, nearly a light-day away. To understand the system, they had to sift through half a century of documentation written by engineers who had mostly retired or passed away.
The anomalies that began in 2020, however, did not abate, leading some mission scientists to question whether they originated with the Sun at all. Szabo thinks they could indicate that Voyager 1 has entered a small cloud of ancient interstellar plasma carrying the higher magnetic field of whatever star or star-forming region spat it out.
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