Thaindian News

Washington, April 29 (ANI): It took more than 30 years for NASA’s Voyager to reach the edge of our solar system, but now the twin probes are about to enter interstellar space.

And the most stunning thing about the Voyager probes is that they are still actively working - gathering information and communicating with Earth.

“It’s uncanny,” said Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Voyager Project Scientist since 1972.

“Voyager 1 and 2 have a knack for making discoveries,” he added.

The adventure began in the late 1970s when the probes took advantage of a rare alignment of outer planets for an unprecedented Grand Tour.

Voyager 1 visited Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. (Voyager 2 is still the only probe to visit Uranus and Neptune.)

The Voyagers are now in an outer ring called heliosheath.

The heliosheath is a very strange place, filled with a magnetic froth no spacecraft has ever encountered before, echoing with low-frequency radio bursts heard only in the outer reaches of the solar system, so far from home that the Sun is a mere pinprick of light.

“In many ways, the heliosheath is not like our models predicted,” said Stone.

No one knows exactly how many more miles the Voyagers must travel before they “pop free” into interstellar space.

Most researchers believe, however, that the end is near.

“The heliosheath is 3 to 4 billion miles in thickness. That means we’ll be out within five years or so,” said Stone.

There is plenty of power for the rest of the journey. Both Voyagers are energized by the radioactive decay of a Plutonium 238 heat source. This should keep critical subsystems running through at least 2020.

“After that, Voyager will become our silent ambassador to the stars,” said Stone. (ANI)