Nasa's Voyager 2 sends back its first signal from interstellar space

[KY_EnviroGuy]

21. Here's three sources a little closer to the horse's mouth....

NASA/Voyager WEB Site

Link: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/index.html

NASA Article:
Nov. 1, 2019
Voyager 2 Illuminates Boundary of Interstellar Space

Link: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/voyager-2-illuminates-boundary-of-interstellar-space

(snip)

The Voyager probes launched in 1977, and both flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 changed course at Saturn in order to fly by Uranus and Neptune, performing the only close flybys of those planets in history. The Voyager probes completed their Grand Tour of the planets and began their Interstellar Mission to reach the heliopause in 1989. Voyager 1, the faster of the two probes, is currently over 13.6 billion miles (22 billion kilometers) from the Sun, while Voyager 2 is 11.3 billion miles (18.2 billion kilometers) from the Sun. It takes light about 16.5 hours to travel from Voyager 2 to Earth. By comparison, light traveling from the Sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth.

JPL WEB Site:

Link: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

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Space.com

Voyager 2's Trip to Interstellar Space Deepens Some Mysteries Beyond Our Solar System

Link: https://www.space.com/nasa-voyager-2-interstellar-space-mysteries.html

(snips)

"We didn't know how large the bubble was," Stone said. "And we certainly didn't know that the spacecraft could live long enough to reach the edge of the bubble and leave the bubble and enter interstellar space."

(A quick note here: Entering interstellar space is not the same thing as leaving the solar system, because the sun's gravitational influence extends far beyond the heliosphere. Indeed, trillions of comets orbit in the Oort Cloud, thousands of AU from the sun, and they're still considered part of the solar system.)

But the Voyagers are nearing the end of the line. Each spacecraft is powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which convert to electricity the heat generated by the radioactive decay of plutonium-238. The RTGs' power output decreases over time as more and more of the plutonium decays.

KY........ ......to NASA