Scientists have captured the signal of Voyager 1, launched 45 years ago, which is sailing out of the solar system.
CTOnews.com, Aug. 27 (Xinhua)-- scientists have picked up a signal from the Allen Telescope Array from Voyager 1, a 45-year-old moon that is speeding toward the outer edge of the solar system, far beyond the orbit of Pluto.
Scientists contacted Voyager 1 on July 9 through California's Allen Telescope Array (ATA) and recorded 15 minutes of data, which were stored on a disk, according to a statement.
The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) is a recently renovated radio observatory dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life near San Francisco, California, using 20 of its 42 dish antennas, each more than 20 feet wide.
Voyager 1 is an unmanned outer solar system space probe developed by NASA, heavy 825.5kg, launched on September 5, 1977, some functions are still in normal operation up to now, and continue to communicate with NASA's deep space network. It is the farthest man-made aircraft ever from Earth and the first man-made aircraft to leave the solar system.
Voyager 1, which has visited Jupiter and Saturn, is the first spacecraft to provide high-resolution pictures of its moons. Its main mission ended on November 20, 1980, after passing through the Jupiter system in 1979 and Saturn system in 1980.
Voyager 1 will still have enough energy to support interstellar flight and keep in touch with Earth in 2020, but Voyager 1 will lose contact with Earth completely after 2025, scientists say. and become a "stray probe" floating in the universe.
By 2036, the power of the signal transmission system will be exhausted. But even if the battery runs out, Voyager 1 will continue to head for the center of the Milky way, but will no longer be able to send data back to his hometown.
It is reported that Voyager 1 is currently flying in a hyperbolic orbit and has reached its third cosmic speed. This means that its orbit can no longer guide the spacecraft back to the solar system, becoming an interstellar spacecraft like the unreachable Pioneer 10 and the defunct Pioneer 11.
Voyager 1 still has to fly over the Oort Cloud, a spherical disk of comets and asteroids located in the farthest part of the solar system, with star clusters thousands of astronomical units from the sun.
It is worth mentioning that no human spacecraft has ever visited the Oort Cloud, and Voyager 1 will take about 300 years to get there. Although, it was already dead at that time.
