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Faraway NASA probe detects the eerie hum of interstellar space - Yahoo News
May 11, 2021 1 min, 54 secs

Instruments aboard NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, which nine years ago exited our solar system's outer reaches, have detected a faint monotonous hum caused by the constant vibrations of the small amounts of gas found in the near-emptiness of interstellar space, scientists said.

These vibrations, called persistent plasma waves, were identified at radio frequencies in a narrow bandwidth during a three-year period as Voyager 1 traverses interstellar space.

"The persistent plasma waves that we've just discovered are far too weak to actually hear with the human ear.

The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in September 1977, is currently located about 14.1 billion miles (22.7 billion km) from Earth - roughly 152 times the distance between our planet and the sun - and is still obtaining and transmitting data.

Having decades ago visited the huge planets Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 is now providing insight into interstellar space.

The stew of matter and radiation present in low densities - mostly gas - is called the interstellar medium.

Much of the interstellar medium is in what is called an ionized, or electrically charged, state called plasma.

The new study instead reveals the steady vibrations unrelated to solar activity that could be a constant feature in interstellar space.

After 44 years of travel, Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object in space.

"There are conceptual designs being made for future probes whose intended purpose is to reach further than the Voyager spacecraft.

NASA has had a great deal of success with its Mars helicopter Ingenuity.

The aircraft took the long trip from Earth to the Red Planet while strapped to the belly of the Perseverance rover, and once it was dropped off at its first Mars "airstrip" it didn't take long for the helicopter to begin its flight testing.

Now, with its fifth flight in the books, the helicopter has completely relocated to a new area of Mars and logged its longest flight so far.

For its first four flights, the Mars helicopter took off and landed in the same location.

The fifth flight was the first and only (so far) where the helicopter took off and landed at two different locations.

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has detected a curious and persistent plasma "hum" in interstellar space, beyond the edge of the solar system.

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