Voyager Spacecraft's Horrifying New Discovery In Space

 

the voyager 1 and voyager 2 spacecrafts

 were launched during the 70s to boldly go where no one has gone before for more than 40 years these spacecraft have been our vanguard of space programs and have enabled men

 to uncover secrets of our solar system

 and the galaxy welcome the fact nominal and today let's look at the strangest discoveries made by voyager 1 and voyager 2. secrets of jupiter voyager 1 and voyager 2's objective was to be our eyes as it explores other solar systems in the galaxy be our messenger if it encounters other life forms and carry humanity's legacy if we never manage to expand beyond our solar system nasa was already enthusiastic the moment the voyagers crossed the asteroid belt to enter the outer block of the solar system the voyagers were meant for exploring interstellar space but that doesn't mean they couldn't take a look at our giant neighbors on their way out the first thing the voyager spacecraft sent us was the fascinating pictures of jupiter's moons europa as usual was the prettiest of them all the smoothest object in all of the solar system europa revealed many secrets after voyager 2 sent nasa the pictures of the

 most fascinating moon of the gas giant

 it was first believed that europa had an iron core like our own planet along with a rocky mantle and an ocean of salty water but thanks to the voyager spacecraft the estimates changed drastically it is now believed that europa's ocean

 lies below a shell of ice probably 10 to 15 miles thick and has an estimated depth of 40 to 100 miles nothing is yet confirmed but thanks to the upcoming europa clipper mission we should know more soon among other moons kalisto was found withering and cratered and ganymede revealed signs of the active tectonic process but it was io that stunned everyone images of io showed enormous plumes extending nearly 200 miles above the surface these were the first volcanoes humans encountered elsewhere in the solar system subsequent research found that io's volcanic activity was the result of gravitational bullying io endured from europa and ganymede this volcanic activity produces tides of subsurface sulfur oxygen and sodium that spew out up to a speed of one kilometer per second to put that into perspective that's as fast as a 257 weatherby magnum but that was not all jupiter had another near invisible secret that it was hiding from humanity for ages but for being machines the voyager spacecrafts did have a keen eye as they managed to reveal jupiter's near-invisible ring yes like saturn jupiter 2 has a ring around it albeit jupiter's ring is made of dust and thus it is so hard to catch but what differentiates saturn from jupiter you might ask well the voyagers would give us a better understanding as it was the next stop in its journey life on saturn today nasa's cassini huygens and importantly the upcoming dragonfly mission to saturn's moon titan to search for signs of life allow a debt to the voyager spacecraft voyager 1 entered the saturn system on november 12 1980. voyager 2 soon followed voyager 1's flyby and encountered saturn and its moons on august 26 1981. this was a huge moment in history as the observations of the voyager spacecrafts helped nasa uncover important information about how to search for extraterrestrial life in and beyond our solar system voyager 1's passage through the saturn system provided nasa the very first up-close look of saturn's rings observing the detailed structure of the rings not only helps scientists to prepare voyager 2 to take a closer look at the planet and its rings but also the moons and especially enceladus before voyager 2's flyby nobody in the astrophysics circle would have thought a small only 500 kilometer diameter moon could hold such a wonderful secret when the spacecraft sent the images of this white moon revolving around saturn we discovered a pristine and bright world teeming with geological activity and the potential of life in images sent by voyager 2 nasa observed evidence of tectonic fractures and softened craters the moon was filled with a global

 liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust in short it was marking every checkbox

 for the possibility of extraterrestrial

 life later nasa's 2005 cassini mission conducted multiple flybys of the little moon and took images of geysers erupting from enceladus's southern polar region cassini even flew through the geyser's plumes sampling what is believed to be water spewing up from the subsurface ocean the data collected by voyager 1 and voyager 2 also helped cassini the cassini spacecraft carrying the huygens probe dropped the lander onto titan's surface in 2005. thanks to that little visit we now know titan also harbors a world of hydrocarbon lakes and water ice we haven't encountered our first saturn-based extraterrestrial life yet but the answers aren't very far after cassini and huygens its dragonflies turn to probe titan's dense atmosphere rich in complex carbon molecules and a surface made of water ice for signs of life in the upcoming decade of 2030.

 our solar system is leaky to make sense of voyager 2's latest findings it helps to know that the sun isn't a quietly burning ball of light our star is a raging nuclear furnace hurling through the galaxy at about 450 000 miles an hour as it orbits the galactic center the sun contains twisted braided magnetic fields across its surface which constantly project the breeze of electrically charged particles which we know as solar wind this gust rushes out in all directions carrying the sun's magnetic field with it eventually the solar wind smashes into the interstellar medium which is the debris from ancient stellar explosions that lurk in the spaces between stars like oil and water the solar wind and the interstellar medium don't perfectly mix so the solar wind forms a bubble within the interstellar medium called the heliosphere based on voyager data this bubble extends about 11 billion miles from the sun at its leading edge surrounding the sun all eight planets and much of the outer objects orbiting our star is that a good thing yes it's a great thing the protective heliosphere shields everything inside it including our fragile dna from most of the galaxy's highest energy radiation however as voyager spacecraft passed through the heliosphere right before saying farewell to our solar system forever they found a [ __ ] in our solar system's armor voyager 1 zoomed through tendrils of interstellar particles that had punched into the heliopause like tree roots through rock voyager 2 however saw a trickle of low energy particles that extended more than a hundred million miles beyond the heliopause another mystery appeared as voyager 1 came within 800 million miles of the heliopause where it entered a limbo-like area in which the outbound solar wind slowed to a crawl before it crossed the heliopause voyager 2 saw the solar wind forming an altogether different kind of layer that oddly was nearly the same width as the stagnant one seen by voyager 1. so what does all of this information mean well it seems our solar system's heliopause is not the best fence we could have ordered to secure the boundary of our solar system it's leaky and punched with holes like swiss cheese on one hand interstellar cosmic rays can invade the heliosphere through these holes and solar wind on the other hand can go beyond the boundaries of our solar system should we worry well nobody is really sure about it for now but the mystery has enough people interested in exploring the answer who's singing in outer space four and a half decades after launch and over 14 billion miles from earth voyager 1 officially exited our solar system in 2012 but like the adorable et this little spacecraft keeps phoning home and will continue to do so until its power supply dies which unfortunately is bound to happen in the near future this is why the messages it is sending are so precious very recently voyager has picked up the signature of interstellar space itself a faint plasma hum comparable to gentle rain interstellar space is supposed to be mostly quiet but it's not entirely vacant the space between star systems usually has a decent amount of hydrogen and helium scattered at varying densities the proportions of the gases are similar to those in the sun someday this interstellar gas will supply the raw material for a new star formation and due to the waves existing in interstellar space it likes to sing as well so this faint persistent hum of interstellar gas is a song of the dispersed but large sea of hydrogen and helium between the stars the hum is caused by the waves of gas swirling around in interstellar space of course the intensity of hum grows and drops with the density of the interstellar gas cloud's presence and thus voyager spacecraft in their number days are helping scientists to chart interstellar space better do you think we will ever be successful in sending mend missions into interstellar space what kind of life would be possible on the moons of jupiter and saturn tell us in the comments and once

 again thanks for reading fact nominal