The Voyagers’

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Profile Lynn Special Project $75 donor
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Message 1840491 - Posted: 7 Jan 2017, 0:18:18 UTC


Hubble Provides Interstellar Road Map for Voyagers’ Galactic Trek


NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft are hurtling through unexplored territory on their road trip beyond our solar system. Along the way, they are measuring the interstellar medium, the mysterious environment between stars. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is providing the road map – by measuring the material along the probes’ future trajectories. Even after the Voyagers run out of electrical power and are unable to send back new data, which may happen in about a decade, astronomers can use Hubble observations to characterize the environment of through which these silent ambassadors will glide.

A preliminary analysis of the Hubble observations reveals a rich, complex interstellar ecology, containing multiple clouds of hydrogen laced with other elements. Hubble data, combined with the Voyagers, have also provided new insights into how our sun travels through interstellar space.


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Message 1840757 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 2:06:58 UTC

The Voyagers are my favorite space travelers.
The mind is a weird and mysterious place
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Profile Bob DeWoody
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Message 1840889 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 21:29:05 UTC

Any estimate on when the Voyager signals will get too weak to be picked out of the background noise? It amazes me that they can be detected even now.
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Message 1840909 - Posted: 8 Jan 2017, 23:12:19 UTC - in response to Message 1840889.  

"Voyager 2 is expected to keep transmitting weak radio messages until at least 2025, over 48 years after it was launched."

I doubt they can be detected without their radio transmission anymore - It would probably be harder than detecting Planet Nine, even though we would have a good idea of where to look as long as they transmit.
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Message 1841031 - Posted: 9 Jan 2017, 15:50:41 UTC - in response to Message 1840909.  

I wasn't thinking of optical detection. I'm just wondering how long the radio telescopes will be able to pick out the Voyager's radio transmissions from the static.
Bob DeWoody

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Message 1841129 - Posted: 10 Jan 2017, 1:50:36 UTC

Judging by the rate of decline in power the Voyager probes can produce, it's been calculated they will be unable to use even a single instrument by 2025. That would presumably include the radio transmitter.
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Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : The Voyagers’


 
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