lightday

In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes into spacewith the aim of studying the outermost planets of the solar system. Both carried out their mission successfully, so they were entrusted with a new task: to become the first ships to travel beyond the confines of our solar system. They also made this check on its target list, always Voyager 1 slightly ahead of its twin. Now, it will also be the first to reach a new milestone: positioning itself at a distance of one light day from Earth. It has been known for a long time that this was his next challenge. Now, thanks to the statements that NASA has made to the media IFLSciencewe know exactly the date and time you are expected to achieve it. Goal almost achieved. According to NASA, Voyager 1 should reach the distance of 1 light day from Earth on November 18, 2026, at 10:16:07 UTC. The time could vary slightly, but in principle, according to calculations made by Voyager mission engineers, those are the predictions. Many achievements in its history. Voyager 1 was released in 1977. In 1979 he arrived in the neighborhood of Jupiter to observe and photograph it up close. Thanks to their work, two new Jovian moons and a thin ring around the planet were discovered. Then, in 1980, it arrived at Saturn. It also discovered a new ring and even more moons: a total of 5 satellites. Uranus and Neptune were left to its twin, Voyager 2, so after Saturn it continued its journey beyond the solar system, leaving the heliosphere behind in 2012. It then became the first human-made object to enter interstellar space. The keys to its maintenance. In these years, it has been necessary to turn off little by little many of the instruments of the Voyager probes to save battery life so that they can continue with their journey. For this reason, it has been several decades without taking images. The last was the famous pale blue dot, which was photographed on Valentine’s Day 1990. Thanks to these savings, it continues to send data regularly to Earth, although the further away it is, the more it costs. Energy that runs out. The Voyager probes they get their energy thanks to three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG), which convert the heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 into electricity. This is what has allowed them to continue working for so long. In 2011, for example, the two probes they generated just under 270 watts, which is about 76% of the power they started with. Thanks to the shutdown of instruments, the gum has been stretching until today, with the possibility of breaking a new record next November. However, 0.8% of power is lost each year, so it is estimated that by 2030 they will no longer obtain enough energy to be able to capture data or communicate with Earth. They will continue to wander through interstellar space, but subdued and silent. And then what? It is estimated that Voyager 1 will take about 40,000 years to approach the closest possible star. It may plunge into another planetary system, which who knows if it will have life or not. If it has it, it will carry a message from Earth, since, like Voyager 2, it carries on board a golden record with greetings in 55 languages, along with music and 116 images and sounds of Earth. None of the engineers who wrote that message will ever know if anyone reads it. We don’t even know if humanity will still exist by then. But when we talk about space, uncertainty is often the norm. For now, it is better to think about the nearest horizon, which is the one in which Voyager 1 breaks one more record. There are only a few months left until he achieves it. Images | POT In Xataka | The rescue of Voyager 1 has begun. With 8 KB of memory, a programming language from 1957 and unparalleled lag