voyager 1 en vivo

Voyager 1 Ephemeris Calculator

Compute the position of Voyager 1 for any date and time between 1 January 2013 and 30 December 2099 and display the results on an interactive star map.

In Evidence

voyager 1 en vivo

Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, to study the outer Solar System and beyond. It is currently the most distant human-made object from Earth, having traveled over 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the Sun. Voyager 1's mission has included flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, with the goal of studying their moons, rings, and magnetic fields. The probe is now traveling through the heliosheath , the outermost layer of the Sun's heliosphere, and is expected to enter interstellar space in the coming years. Voyager 1 carries a golden record that contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, in the event that it is ever encountered by extraterrestrial life.

Voyager 1 is currently in the constellation of Ophiucus , at a distance of 24,343,127,618 kilometers from Earth.

voyager 1 en vivo

Today's rise, transit and set times of Voyager 1 from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

  • Voyager 1 is above the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt .
  • Right now it is placed in the South-South-West direction at an altitude of 47° above the horizon.
  • Go to interactive sky chart

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page , so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

  • Position and finder charts (see also Where is Voyager 1? )
  • Distance from Earth (see also How far is Voyager 1 from Earth? )
  • When does Voyager 1 rise and set?
  • Interactive orbit visualization . 3d visualization showing the orbit of Voyager 1 with respect to the major Solar System objects.
  • 15 days ephemerides . Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Voyager 1 for the past and next 7 days.
  • Interactive sky chart . An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Voyager 1 in the sky from your location.
  • Live position tracker . A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Voyager 1 with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

Voyager 1 Position and Finder Charts

voyager 1 en vivo

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Voyager 1 is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view .

voyager 1 en vivo

Also check out Where is Voyager 1? , a page that provides all the information needed to find Voyager 1 in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Voyager 1 Distance from Earth

The distance of Voyager 1 from Earth is currently 24,343,127,618 kilometers, equivalent to 162.723757 Astronomical Units . Light takes 22 hours, 33 minutes and 19.9334 seconds to travel from Voyager 1 and arrive to us.

The following chart shows the distance of Voyager 1 from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Closest Approach of Voyager 1 to Earth

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Visualization of Voyager 1 Orbit

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of Voyager 1 with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets . The position of Voyager 1 and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System. This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback !

Voyager 1 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Voyager 1 computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Voyager 1 in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

NASA Voyager 1 Encounters New Region in Deep Space

voyager 1 en vivo

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region at the far reaches of our solar system that scientists feel is the final area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space.

Scientists refer to this new region as a magnetic highway for charged particles because our sun's magnetic field lines are connected to interstellar magnetic field lines. This connection allows lower-energy charged particles that originate from inside our heliosphere -- or the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself -- to zoom out and allows higher-energy particles from outside to stream in. Before entering this region, the charged particles bounced around in all directions, as if trapped on local roads inside the heliosphere.

The Voyager team infers this region is still inside our solar bubble because the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed. The direction of these magnetic field lines is predicted to change when Voyager breaks through to interstellar space. The new results were described at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco on Monday.

"Although Voyager 1 still is inside the sun's environment, we now can taste what it's like on the outside because the particles are zipping in and out on this magnetic highway," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space. Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn't what we expected, but we've come to expect the unexpected from Voyager." Since December 2004, when Voyager 1 crossed a point in space called the termination shock, the spacecraft has been exploring the heliosphere's outer layer, called the heliosheath. In this region, the stream of charged particles from the sun, known as the solar wind, abruptly slowed down from supersonic speeds and became turbulent. Voyager 1's environment was consistent for about five and a half years. The spacecraft then detected that the outward speed of the solar wind slowed to zero. The intensity of the magnetic field also began to increase at that time. Voyager data from two onboard instruments that measure charged particles showed the spacecraft first entered this magnetic highway region on July 28, 2012. The region ebbed away and flowed toward Voyager 1 several times. The spacecraft entered the region again Aug. 25 and the environment has been stable since. "If we were judging by the charged particle data alone, I would have thought we were outside the heliosphere," said Stamatios Krimigis, principal investigator of the low-energy charged particle instrument, based at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. "But we need to look at what all the instruments are telling us and only time will tell whether our interpretations about this frontier are correct." Spacecraft data revealed the magnetic field became stronger each time Voyager entered the highway region; however, the direction of the magnetic field lines did not change. "We are in a magnetic region unlike any we've been in before -- about 10 times more intense than before the termination shock -- but the magnetic field data show no indication we're in interstellar space," said Leonard Burlaga, a Voyager magnetometer team member based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The magnetic field data turned out to be the key to pinpointing when we crossed the termination shock. And we expect these data will tell us when we first reach interstellar space." Voyager 1 and 2 were launched 16 days apart in 1977. At least one of the spacecraft has visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object, about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from the sun. The signal from Voyager 1 takes approximately 17 hours to travel to Earth. Voyager 2, the longest continuously operated spacecraft, is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) away from our sun. While Voyager 2 has seen changes similar to those seen by Voyager 1, the changes are much more gradual. Scientists do not think Voyager 2 has reached the magnetic highway. The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .

News Media Contact

Jia-Rui Cook

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0724

[email protected]

Dwayne Brown

202-358-1726

[email protected]

Image that reads Space Place and links to spaceplace.nasa.gov.

Voyager 1 y 2: La Misión Interestelar

Imagen de Neptuno tomada por la nave espacial Voyager 2.

Imagen de Neptuno tomada por la nave espacial Voyager 2. Imagen crédito: NASA

NASA tiene hermosas fotos de cada planeta de nuestro sistema solar. Incluso tenemos imágenes del lejano Neptuno , como podemos apreciar en la foto de arriba.

Neptuno está demasiado lejos para que un astronauta viaje hasta allí con una cámara. Entonces, ¿cómo tenemos imágenes de lugares tan lejanos de nuestro sistema solar? Nuestros fotógrafos fueron dos naves espaciales llamadas ¡Voyager 1 y Voyager 2!

Representación artística de una de las naves espaciales Voyager.

Representación artística de una de las naves espaciales Voyager. Imagen crédito: NASA

Las naves espaciales Voyager 1 y Voyager 2 fueron lanzadas desde la Tierra en 1977. Su misión fue explorar Júpiter y Saturno --y planetas que se encuentran más allá de nuestro sistema solar. Esta fue una gran hazaña. Ningún objeto hecho en el pasado por el ser humano, había intentado un viaje como éste.

Las dos naves espaciales tomaron decenas de miles de imágenes de Júpiter y Saturno. Las imágenes del Voyager 1 y 2 nos permitieron ver muchas cosas por primera vez. Por ejemplo, ellos capturaron fotos a detalle de las nubes y tormentas de Júpiter, y la estructura de los anillos de Saturno .

Imagen de las tormentas en Júpiter tomadas por la nave espacial Voyager 1.

Imagen de las tormentas en Júpiter tomadas por la nave espacial Voyager 1. Crédito: NASA

Voyager 1 y 2 también descubrieron volcanes activos en Io, una de las lunas de Júpiter , y mucho más. Voyager 2 también tomó imágenes de Urano y Neptuno. En conjunto, la misión Voyager descubrió 22 lunas.

Desde entonces, estas astronaves continúan su viaje alejándose de nosotros. Voyager 1 y 2 están ahora tan lejos que han llegado al espacio interestelar --la región entre las estrellas. Ninguna otra nave espacial ha viajado tan lejos.

¿A dónde irá Voyager después?

¡Mira éste video para descubrir qué hay más allá de nuestro sistema solar!

Ambas naves espaciales continúan enviando información de regreso a la Tierra. Estos datos nos ayudarán a entender acerca de las condiciones en el distante sistema solar y el espacio interestelar.

Los Voyager tienen suficiente combustible y energía para operar hasta el 2025 y más allá. Después de algún tiempo de esto, ya no podrán comunicarse con la Tierra. A menos que algo los detenga, continuarán pasando por nuevas estrellas una y otra vez por muchos miles de años.

Cada nave espacial Voyager contiene un mensaje. Ambas lleva consigo un disco de oro con escenas y sonidos de la Tierra. Los discos también contienen música y saludos en diferentes idiomas. Por lo cual, si vida inteligente encuentra alguna vez estas naves espaciales, ¡podrán saber acerca de la Tierra y de nosotros!

Foto del disco de oro que se envió al espacio en ambos Voyagers 1 y 2.

Foto del disco de oro que se envió al espacio en ambos Voyagers 1 y 2. Imagen crédito: NASA/JPL-Caltech

¡Más sobre nuestro universo!

Una señalamiento que dice bienvenido al espacio interestelar

¿Dónde comienza el espacio interestelar?

ilustración con flechas apuntando a las estrellas en un cielo oscuro

Buscando otros planetas como el nuestro.

Ilustración de la portal del video juego explorador galáctico

¡Juega al Explorador Galáctico!

Illustration of a game controller that links to the Space Place Games menu.

More about our universe!

A sign that says welcome to interstellar space

Where does interstellar space begin?

an illustration arrows pointing at stars on a dark sky

Searching for other planets like ours

an illustrated game box cover for the Galactic Explorer game

Play Galactic Explorer!

NASA Logo

Suggested Searches

  • Climate Change
  • Expedition 64
  • Mars perseverance
  • SpaceX Crew-2
  • International Space Station
  • View All Topics A-Z

Humans in Space

Earth & climate, the solar system, the universe, aeronautics, learning resources, news & events.

SpaceX launched the third integrated flight test of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage from the company’s Starbase orbital launch pad at 8:25 a.m. CT on March 14. This flight test is an important milestone toward providing NASA with a Starship HLS for its Artemis missions.

NASA Artemis Mission Progresses with SpaceX Starship Test Flight

A man sits in front of a computer screen in a large control room with huge screens in the background.

NASA Lights ‘Beacon’ on Moon With Autonomous Navigation System Test

NASA-Supported Team Discovers Aurora-Like Radio Bursts Above Sunspot

NASA-Supported Team Discovers Aurora-Like Radio Bursts Above Sunspot

  • Search All NASA Missions
  • A to Z List of Missions
  • Upcoming Launches and Landings
  • Spaceships and Rockets
  • Communicating with Missions
  • James Webb Space Telescope
  • Hubble Space Telescope
  • Why Go to Space
  • Astronauts Home
  • Commercial Space
  • Destinations
  • Living in Space
  • Explore Earth Science
  • Earth, Our Planet
  • Earth Science in Action
  • Earth Multimedia
  • Earth Science Researchers
  • Pluto & Dwarf Planets
  • Asteroids, Comets & Meteors
  • The Kuiper Belt
  • The Oort Cloud
  • Skywatching
  • The Search for Life in the Universe

Black Holes

  • The Big Bang
  • Dark Energy & Dark Matter
  • Earth Science
  • Planetary Science
  • Astrophysics & Space Science
  • The Sun & Heliophysics
  • Biological & Physical Sciences
  • Lunar Science
  • Citizen Science
  • Astromaterials
  • Aeronautics Research
  • Human Space Travel Research
  • Science in the Air
  • NASA Aircraft
  • Flight Innovation
  • Supersonic Flight
  • Air Traffic Solutions
  • Green Aviation Tech
  • Drones & You
  • Technology Transfer & Spinoffs
  • Space Travel Technology
  • Technology Living in Space
  • Manufacturing and Materials
  • Science Instruments
  • For Kids and Students
  • For Educators
  • For Colleges and Universities
  • For Professionals
  • Science for Everyone
  • Requests for Exhibits, Artifacts, or Speakers
  • STEM Engagement at NASA
  • NASA's Impacts
  • Centers and Facilities
  • Directorates
  • Organizations
  • People of NASA
  • Internships
  • Our History
  • Doing Business with NASA
  • Get Involved
  • Aeronáutica
  • Ciencias Terrestres
  • Sistema Solar
  • All NASA News
  • Video Series on NASA+
  • Newsletters
  • Social Media
  • Media Resources
  • Upcoming Launches & Landings
  • Virtual Events
  • Sounds and Ringtones
  • Interactives
  • STEM Multimedia

NASA Delivers Science Instrument to JAXA’s Martian Moons Mission

NASA Delivers Science Instrument to JAXA’s Martian Moons Mission

Hubble Views a Galaxy Under Pressure

Hubble Views a Galaxy Under Pressure

voyager 1 en vivo

NASA Helps Emerging Space Companies ‘Take the Heat’

voyager 1 en vivo

10 Ways Students Can Prepare to #BeAnAstronaut

Astronaut Candidate Jessica Wittner

NASA Astronaut: Jessica Wittner

Coastal Resilience Projects

Coastal Resilience Projects

SWOT satellite data for water surface height in part of Mendocino County, Northern California

SWOT Satellite Catches Coastal Flooding During California Storms

Etna Eruption

Can Volcanic Super Eruptions Lead to Major Cooling? Study Suggests No

Eclipse Photographers Will Help Study Sun During Its Disappearing Act

Eclipse Photographers Will Help Study Sun During Its Disappearing Act

Hubble Tracks Jupiter’s Stormy Weather

Hubble Tracks Jupiter’s Stormy Weather

Black Holes

Cheers! NASA’s Webb Finds Ethanol, Other Icy Ingredients for Worlds

NASA Volunteers Find Fifteen Rare “Active Asteroids”

NASA Volunteers Find Fifteen Rare “Active Asteroids”

Amendment 5: A.7 Biodiversity and Ecological Conservation Final Text and Due Dates

Amendment 5: A.7 Biodiversity and Ecological Conservation Final Text and Due Dates

voyager 1 en vivo

NASA Armstrong Updates 1960s Concept to Study Giant Planets

Illustration showing several future aircraft concepts flying over a mid-sized city with a handful of skyscrapers.

ARMD Solicitations

Dream with Us graphic, showing a female African American dreaming up aeronautics ideas.

2024 Dream with Us Design Challenge

The 2024 Power to Explore logo celebrates the total eclipse with an illustration of the Sun disappearing behind an atomic symbol.

NASA Announces Semifinalists of Power to Explore Challenge

voyager 1 en vivo

Tech Today: Suspended Solar Panels See the Light

Three small rovers that will explore the Moon together

NASA’s Network of Small Moon-Bound Rovers Is Ready to Roll

Cartoon graphic of the annual NASA Pi Day Challenge

NASA Pi Day Challenge Serves Up a Mathematical Marvel

Women’s History Month 2022

Women’s History Month: Celebrating Women Astronauts 2024

Headshot of Sarah Mann over a faded black and white aerial image of NASA Armstrong. There is text that reads “Women’s History Month – Sarah Mann, Public Affairs Specialist.”

Women’s History Month: Meet Sarah Mann

8 Must-Have NASA Resources for Science Teachers in 2024

8 Must-Have NASA Resources for Science Teachers in 2024

Astronaut Marcos Berrios

Astronauta de la NASA Marcos Berríos

image of an experiment facility installed in the exterior of the space station

Resultados científicos revolucionarios en la estación espacial de 2023

NASA astronauts (from left) Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara, both Expedition 70 Flight Engineers, partner together removing and replacing components inside the Cold Atom Lab aboard the International Space Station. The space physics device enables observations of atoms chilled to temperatures near absolute zero allowing scientists to study fundamental behaviors and quantum characteristics not possible on Earth.

Logros de la NASA en la estación espacial en 2023

45 years ago: voyager 1 begins its epic journey to the outer planets and beyond, johnson space center.

Forty-five years ago, the Voyager 1 spacecraft began an epic journey that continues to this day. The second of a pair of spacecraft, Voyager 1 lifted off on Sept. 5, 1977, 16 days after its twin left on a similar voyage. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, managed the two spacecraft on their missions to explore the outer planets. Taking advantage of a rare planetary alignment to use the gravity of one planet to redirect the spacecraft to the next, the Voyagers planned to use Jupiter’s gravity to send them on to explore Saturn and its large moon Titan. They carried sophisticated instruments to conduct their in-depth explorations of the giant planets. Both spacecraft continue to return data as they make their way out of our solar system and enter interstellar space.

voyager_1_tops_trajectories

In the 1960s, mission designers at JPL noted that the next occurrence of a once-every-175-year alignment of the outer planets would happen in the late 1970s. A spacecraft could take advantage of this opportunity to fly by Jupiter and use its gravity to bend its trajectory to visit Saturn, and repeat the process to also visit Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Launching several missions to visit each planet individually would take much longer and cost much more. The original plan to send two pairs of Thermoelectric Outer Planet Spacecraft on these Grand Tours proved too costly leading to its cancellation in 1971. The next year, NASA approved a scaled-down version of the project to send a pair of Mariner-class spacecraft in 1977 to explore just Jupiter and Saturn, with an expected five-year operational life. On March 7, 1977, NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher announced the renaming of these Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977 spacecraft as Voyager 1 and 2. Scientists held out hope that one of them could ultimately visit Uranus and Neptune, thereby fulfilling most of the original Grand Tour’s objectives – Pluto would have to wait several decades for its first visit.

voyager_1_mjs_77_artwork_1975

Each Voyager carried a suite of 11 instruments to study the planets during each encounter and to learn more about interplanetary space in the outer reaches of the solar system, including: 

  • An imaging science system consisting of narrow-angle and wide-angle cameras to photograph the planet and its satellites.
  • A radio science system to determine the planet’s physical properties.
  • An infrared interferometer spectrometer to investigate local and global energy balance and atmospheric composition.
  • An ultraviolet spectrometer to measure atmospheric properties.
  • A magnetometer to analyze the planet’s magnetic field and interaction with the solar wind.
  • A plasma spectrometer to investigate microscopic properties of plasma ions.
  • A low-energy charged particle device to measure fluxes and distributions of ions.
  • A cosmic ray detection system to determine the origin and behavior of cosmic radiation.
  • A planetary radio astronomy investigation to study radio emissions from Jupiter.
  • A photopolarimeter to measure the planet’s surface composition.
  • A plasma wave system to study the planet’s magnetosphere.

voyager_1_instruments

Voyager 1 lifted off on Sept. 5, 1977, atop a Titan IIIE-Centaur rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, now Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida. Two weeks after its launch, from a distance of 7.25 million miles, Voyager 1 turned its camera back toward its home planet and took the first single-frame image of the Earth-Moon system. The spacecraft successfully crossed the asteroid belt between Dec. 10, 1977, and Sept. 8, 1978.

voyager_1_earth_and_moon_from_voyager_1_1977

Although Voyager 1 launched two weeks after its twin, it traveled on a faster trajectory and arrived at Jupiter four months earlier. Voyager 1 conducted its observations of Jupiter between Jan. 6 and April 13, 1979, making its closest approach of 216,837 miles from the planet’s center on March 5. The spacecraft returned 19,000 images of the giant planet, many of Jupiter’s satellites, and confirmed the presence of a thin ring encircling it. Its other instruments returned information about Jupiter’s atmosphere and magnetic field. Jupiter’s massive gravity field bent the spacecraft’s trajectory and accelerated it toward Saturn.

voyager_1_saturn_departure_nov_16_1980_3_3_m_miles

Voyager 1 began its long-range observations of Saturn on Aug. 22, 1980, passed within 114,500 miles of the planet’s center on Nov. 12, and concluded its studies on Dec. 14. Because of its interest to scientists, mission planners chose the spacecraft’s trajectory to make a close flyby of Saturn’s largest moon Titan – the only planetary satellite with a dense atmosphere – just before the closest approach to the planet itself. This trajectory, passing over Saturn’s south pole and bending north over the plane of the ecliptic, precluded Voyager 1 from making any additional planetary encounters. The spacecraft flew 4,033 miles from Titan’s center, returning images of its unbroken orange atmosphere and high-altitude blue haze layer. During the encounter, Voyager 1 returned 16,000 photographs, imaging Saturn, its rings, many of its known satellites and discovering several new ones, while its instruments returned data about Saturn’s atmosphere and magnetic field.

voyager_1_family_portrait

On Feb. 14, 1990, more than 12 years after it began its journey from Earth and shortly before controllers  permanently turned off its cameras to conserve power, Voyager 1 spun around and pointed them back into the solar system. In a mosaic of 60 images, it captured a “family portrait” of six of the solar system’s planets, including a pale blue dot called Earth more than 3.7 billion miles away. Fittingly, these were the last pictures returned from either Voyager spacecraft. On Feb. 17, 1998, Voyager 1 became the most distant human-made object, overtaking the Pioneer 10 spacecraft on their way out of the solar system. In February 2020, to commemorate the photograph’s 30th anniversary, NASA released a remastered version of the image of Earth as Pale Blue Dot Revisited .

earth-palebluedot-6bkm-voyager1

On New Year’s Day 1990, both spacecraft officially began the Voyager Interstellar Mission as they inexorably made their escape from our solar system. On Aug. 25, 2012, Voyager 1 passed beyond the heliopause, the boundary between the heliosphere, the bubble-like region of space created by the Sun, and the interstellar medium. Its twin followed suit six years later. Today , 45 years after its launch and 14.6 billion miles from Earth, four of Voyager 1’s 11 instruments continue to return useful data, having now spent 10 years in interstellar space. Signals from the spacecraft take nearly 22 hours to reach Earth, and 22 hours for Earth-based signals to reach the spacecraft. Engineers expect that the spacecraft will continue to return data from interstellar space until about 2025 when it will no longer be able to power its systems. And just in case an alien intelligence finds it one day, Voyager 1 like its twin carries a gold-plated record that contains information about its home planet, including recordings of terrestrial sounds, music, and greetings in 55 languages. Engineers at NASA thoughtfully included Instructions on how to play the record.

voyager_1_golden_record

The voyage continues…

© 2024 Cable News Network. A Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All Rights Reserved.

CNN Sans ™ & © 2024 Cable News Network.

Internacional

La vieja nave Voyager 1 envía una respuesta sorprendente después de que la Tierra le diera un “empujón”

Por Ashley Strickland

voyager 1 en vivo

Notas relacionadas

voyager 1 en vivo

La nave Voyager 1 deja de comunicarse con la Tierra

Así mantiene la NASA funcionando la nave Voyager tras 46 años

Así mantiene la NASA funcionando la nave Voyager tras 46 años

(CNN) -- Los ingenieros dieron un "empujón" a la sonda Voyager 1 y recibieron una respuesta potencialmente alentadora, ya que esperan solucionar un problema de comunicación con la vieja nave espacial que ha persistido durante cinco meses.

Lanzada en 1977, la Voyager 1 y su gemela, la Voyager 2, se aventuran a través de territorio cósmico inexplorado a lo largo de los confines exteriores del sistema solar.

Si bien la Voyager 1 ha seguido transmitiendo una señal de radio constante a su equipo de control de misión en la Tierra, esa señal no ha transportado ningún dato utilizable desde noviembre, lo que ha señalado un problema con una de las tres computadoras a bordo de la nave espacial.

Una nueva señal recibida recientemente de la nave espacial sugiere que el equipo de la misión de la NASA puede estar avanzando en su búsqueda para comprender lo que está experimentando la Voyager 1. La Voyager 1 es actualmente la nave espacial más alejada de la Tierra, a unos 24.000 millones de kilómetros (15.000 millones de millas) de distancia.

  • La sonda Voyager 1 deja de comunicarse con la Tierra

Mientras tanto, la Voyager 2 ha viajado más de 20.3000 millones de kilómetros (12.6000 millones de millas) desde nuestro planeta. Ambas se encuentran en el espacio interestelar y son las únicas naves espaciales que jamás han operado más allá de la heliosfera, la burbuja solar de campos magnéticos y partículas que se extiende mucho más allá de la órbita de Plutón.

Inicialmente diseñadas para durar cinco años, las sondas Voyager son las dos naves espaciales que llevan más tiempo en funcionamiento de la historia. Su vida útil excepcionalmente larga significa que ambas naves espaciales han proporcionado información adicional sobre nuestro sistema solar y más allá después de lograr sus objetivos preliminares de volar sobre Júpiter, Saturno, Urano y Neptuno hace décadas.

Pero ambas sondas han enfrentado desafíos a lo largo del camino a medida que envejecen.

Ruptura de la comunicación cósmica

El equipo de la misión notó por primera vez el problema de comunicación con la Voyager 1 el 14 de noviembre de 2023, cuando la unidad de modulación de telemetría del sistema de datos de vuelo comenzó a enviar un patrón repetitivo de código.

El sistema de datos de vuelo de la Voyager 1 recopila información de los instrumentos científicos de la nave espacial y la combina con datos de ingeniería que reflejan el estado de salud actual de la Voyager 1. El control de la misión en la Tierra recibe esos datos en código binario, o una serie de unos y ceros.

Pero desde noviembre, el sistema de datos de vuelo de la Voyager 1 ha estado estancado en un bucle.

La nave espacial aún puede recibir y ejecutar comandos transmitidos desde el equipo de la misión, pero un problema con esa unidad de telecomunicaciones significó que no se transmitieran datos científicos o de ingeniería de la Voyager 1 a la Tierra.

Desde que descubrió el problema, el equipo de la misión intentó enviar comandos para reiniciar el sistema informático y aprender más sobre la causa subyacente del problema.

El equipo envió un comando, llamado "poke" —empujón o toque, en español—, a la Voyager 1 el 1 de marzo para que el sistema de datos de vuelo ejecutara diferentes secuencias de software en caso de que algún tipo de falla estuviera causando el problema.

El 3 de marzo, el equipo notó que la actividad de una parte del sistema de datos de vuelo se destacaba del resto de los datos confusos. Si bien la señal no estaba en el formato al que está acostumbrado el equipo de la Voyager cuando el sistema de datos de vuelo funciona como se esperaba, un ingeniero de la Red de Espacio Profundo de la NASA pudo decodificarla.

La Red de Espacio Profundo es un sistema de antenas de radio en la Tierra que ayudan a la agencia a comunicarse con las sondas Voyager y otras naves espaciales que exploran nuestro sistema solar.

La señal decodificada incluía una lectura de toda la memoria del sistema de datos de vuelo, según una actualización compartida por la NASA.

"La memoria (del sistema de datos de vuelo) incluye su código o instrucciones sobre qué hacer, así como variables o valores utilizados en el código que pueden cambiar según los comandos o el estado de la nave espacial", según una publicación de blog de la NASA. “También contiene datos científicos o de ingeniería para el enlace descendente. El equipo comparará esta lectura con la que apareció antes de que surgiera el problema y buscará discrepancias en el código y las variables para encontrar potencialmente la fuente del problema actual”.

¿Qué hace que las sondas Voyager aún funcionen?

La Voyager 1 está tan lejos que las órdenes enviadas desde la Tierra tardan 22,5 horas en llegar a la nave espacial. Además, el equipo deberá esperar 45 horas para recibir una respuesta. Actualmente, el equipo está analizando la lectura de la memoria de la Voyager 1 después de comenzar inicialmente el proceso de decodificación el 7 de marzo y encontrar la lectura tres días después.

"Usar esa información para idear una posible solución e intentar ponerla en práctica llevará tiempo", de acuerdo con la agencia espacial.

  • La NASA escucha el "latido" del Voyager 2 tras perder la comunicación

La última vez que la Voyager 1 experimentó un problema similar, pero no idéntico, con el sistema de datos de vuelo fue en 1981, y el problema actual no parece estar relacionado con otros fallos que la nave espacial ha experimentado en los últimos años.

Con el tiempo, ambas naves espaciales han encontrado problemas y abandonos inesperados, incluido un periodo de siete meses en 2020 en el que la Voyager 2 no pudo comunicarse con la Tierra. En agosto de 2023, el equipo de la misión utilizó una técnica de “grito” de largo alcance para restablecer las comunicaciones con la Voyager 2 después de que un comando orientara inadvertidamente la antena de la nave espacial en la dirección equivocada.

The Voyager spacecraft will probably last a billion years, says a scientist on the mission for nearly 5 decades

  • Alan Cummings has worked on the Voyager mission for over 50 years.
  • Since their launch, the two Voyager spacecraft have made breakthrough discoveries that keep Cummings engaged.
  • Cummings thinks they will continue traveling for a billion years.

Insider Today

The twin Voyager spacecraft launched almost five decades ago, and there's no reason they shouldn't keep going for a billion years, one of its scientists, Alan Cummings told Business Insider.

Cummings started working on the Voyager mission when he was a graduate student at Caltech in 1973, about four years before the two spacecraft launched.

Now a senior research scientist at Caltech, Cummings has seen the program dwindle from over 300 people to fewer than a dozen.

Voyagers 1 and 2 have traveled over 10 billion miles into space, further than any human-made object. Cummings said being a part of this historic mission for so many decades has been the backbone of his career.

"The Hubble Telescope is a great mission," he said. " JWST is a great mission, but I think Voyager's in that kind of category."

Voyagers' endurance

The Voyager mission has been gathering groundbreaking data and photos since the beginning.

The first time Cummings saw Jupiter's moon Io in 1979, for example, he thought it was a joke. "It looked like a poorly made pizza," he said.

Its colorful, volcano-covered surface looked so different from Earth's gray, pockmarked moon . "This can't be real," he said, "and it was real."

The Voyagers offered us a new perspective on our outer solar system, unlike anything we could have imagined.

They discovered Saturn wasn't the only planet with rings — Jupiter has them too. They revealed new moons around Jupiter and Saturn.

In total, the two spacecraft snapped 67,000 images of our solar system, the final of which was the "pale blue dot" photo made famous by Carl Sagan who said:

"To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world."

"It rewrote the textbooks," Cummings said of the mission.

Both Voyagers were initially planned as five-year missions, but Cummings said, from the beginning, he expected the spacecraft to last at least 30 to 40 years.

Related stories

"A remarkable engineering team has kept this thing going," Cummings said.

Now, as the two spacecraft approach their 50th anniversaries, they're running low on fuel.

Engineers have had to shut down different instruments to keep them going and the data coming in.

Cummings said once the Voyagers lose power and communication, they'll continue traveling. "I think it's going to go for a billion years," he said. "There's nothing to stop it."

Joining Voyager

If it weren't for an unfortunate accident, Cummings may never have joined the Voyager mission.

Before Voyager, Cummings was part of an experiment to measure cosmic rays using a balloon.

For several summers, he had released the balloon from northern Manitoba, Canada.

But during its final flight, the balloon didn't descend as expected and ended up over Russia, instead.

By the time Cummings got to Russia, the instrument was destroyed.

"It was very fortunate for me," he said, because he was able to then join the Voyager mission.

He put his cosmic ray experience to use, working on telescopes for the mission's experiments.

"I have my little initials scratched on one of those" telescopes he said, "so I guess I'm going to be immortal."

Interstellar space

Cummings has worked on other projects over the decades, but Voyagers' continual transmission of new data has kept him excited and involved.

"There's always some new phenomenon that you see," he said.

In fact, Voyager's data has become increasingly more interesting to Cummings in recent years because the two spacecraft are now in interstellar space , the region of space beyond our sun's influence.

After passing by the four giant planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus, many of the instruments were still in working order. So, the spacecraft transitioned to an interstellar mission.

In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first human-made spacecraft to enter interstellar space and Voyager 2 followed six years later.

"That is really what I was most interested in anyway," Cummings said, since cosmic rays are his field of expertise and in interstellar space, those rays aren't disrupted by the sun, Earth, and other obstructions in our solar system.

Voyager is "making its most interesting measurements in some ways right now," he said.

Currently, Voyager 1 is having issues with one of its onboard computers that could compromise the mission.

Cummings hopes the Voyagers can hang on a little longer, especially since interstellar space is a long way off for any other spacecraft.

Watch: NASA released this 5-year time-lapse of Mars from its Curiosity rover — and the footage looks amazing

voyager 1 en vivo

  • Main content

¿Cómo se oye el universo? Sonda Voyager 1 capta ‘la banda sonora’ del espacio interestelar

la familia. satcha: gracias por brindar los detalles en vivo desde los ángeles. alan: esto se oye como un zumbido de insecto, es la banda sonora del espacio estrellas de otras. lo escuchamos por primera vez fue captado en el 2012, la primer astro nave en entrar sistema solar. el persistente sonido proviene de la vibracón de las ondas de plasma y que seá nuestro planeta te digo que lo digo pero no lo

¿Cómo se oye el universo? Sonda Voyager 1 capta ‘la banda sonora’ del espacio interestelar

Del espacio al cine: astronauta José Hernández recuerda cómo logró entrar a la NASA tras 12 rechazos

“Houston, tenemos un problema”: Alan Tacher y Lindsay Casinelli intentaron ser astronautas en la NASA

“Houston, tenemos un problema”: Alan Tacher y Lindsay Casinelli intentaron ser astronautas en la NASA

NASA estrella una nave contra un asteroide: científico explica cómo salvarían a la Tierra de un suceso así

NASA estrella una nave contra un asteroide: científico explica cómo salvarían a la Tierra de un suceso así

Tarántula cósmica: la impresionante imagen que captó el telescopio James Webb en el espacio

Tarántula cósmica: la impresionante imagen que captó el telescopio James Webb en el espacio

Marcos Berríos, el hispano seleccionado como candidato a astronauta por la NASA de entre 12 mil aspirantes

Marcos Berríos, el hispano seleccionado como candidato a astronauta por la NASA de entre 12 mil aspirantes

NASA realiza el lanzamiento de la nave 'Dart' que se estrellaría contra un asteroide para desviarlo

NASA realiza el lanzamiento de la nave 'Dart' que se estrellaría contra un asteroide para desviarlo

NASA lanza misión para desviar asteroides que amenacen con estrellarse contra la Tierra

NASA lanza misión para desviar asteroides que amenacen con estrellarse contra la Tierra

La NASA lanza un telescopio que podría detectar si hay vida en otros planetas

La NASA lanza un telescopio que podría detectar si hay vida en otros planetas

Trabajo soñado: NASA busca a voluntarios para dormir durante 59 días por un gran pago

Trabajo soñado: NASA busca a voluntarios para dormir durante 59 días por un gran pago

Hispana en la luna: NASA lanza cómic con un personaje inspirado en una mujer latina

Hispana en la luna: NASA lanza cómic con un personaje inspirado en una mujer latina

Tus historias favoritas están en vix.

Se Llamaba Pedro Infante Carrusel

NASA, California Institute of Technology, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Page Header Title

  • The Contents
  • The Making of
  • Where Are They Now
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Q & A with Ed Stone

golden record

Where are they now.

  • frequently asked questions
  • Q&A with Ed Stone

Mission Overview

The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. Continuing on their more-than-40-year journey since their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the sun than Pluto. In August 2012, Voyager 1 made the historic entry into interstellar space, the region between stars, filled with material ejected by the death of nearby stars millions of years ago. Voyager 2 entered interstellar space on November 5, 2018 and scientists hope to learn more about this region. Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network, or DSN.

The primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn. After making a string of discoveries there — such as active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and intricacies of Saturn's rings — the mission was extended. Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited those outer planets. The adventurers' current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun's domain. And beyond.

This image showcases the dates of planetary encounters for Voyager 1 and 2 with the outer planets in our solar system.

Interstellar Mission

The mission objective of the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) is to extend the NASA exploration of the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence, and possibly beyond.

› Learn more

Planetary Voyage

The twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched by NASA in separate months in the summer of 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. As originally designed, the Voyagers were to conduct closeup studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings, and the larger moons of the two planets.

› View more

Image of Voyager

Launch: Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. On September 5, Voyager 1 launched, also from Cape Canaveral aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket.

Voyager 1 Exits Heliosphere

  • Released Friday, November 1st, 2013
  • Updated Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 at 12:25AM
  • voyager1_exits_heliosphere_cal_print.jpg (1024x576) [59.6 KB]
  • voyager1_exits_heliosphere_cal.png (4200x3300) [1.5 MB]
  • voyager1_exits_heliosphere_web.png (320x180) [171.7 KB]
  • voyager1_exits_heliosphere_thm.png (80x40) [12.1 KB]

Presentations

  • voyager1_exits_heliosphere.key [5.1 MB]
  • voyager1_exits_heliosphere.pptx [736.4 KB]

Artist's concept depicts Voyager 1 entering the interstellar medium.

For More Information

See the following sources:

  • http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications/25
  • http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

Hyperwall Interstellar Medium Spacecraft Voyager

Please give credit for this item to: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech/The University of Iowa

  • Heather Hanson (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Project support

  • Mark Malanoski (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
  • SMD 2014 Calendar images

You may also like...

No results., an error occurred. please reload this page and try again..

NASA Logo

7 min de lectura

Nuevos datos de Voyager 1 de la NASA podrían cambiar nuestro concepto del cosmos

Voyager 1

Hasta hace poco, todas las naves espaciales de la historia habían realizado sus mediciones dentro de nuestra heliosfera, la burbuja magnética influenciada por nuestro Sol. Hasta el 25 de agosto de 2012, cuando Voyager 1 cruzó el límite de la heliosfera, convirtiéndose en el primer objeto creado por humanos en entrar y medir el espacio interestelar. Ahora, ocho años después del comienzo de su viaje interestelar, un análisis exhaustivo de los datos de Voyager 1 está proporcionando nuevos conocimientos sobre cómo es esa frontera.

Si nuestra heliosfera fuese un barco que navega por aguas interestelares, Voyager 1 sería una balsa salvavidas que acaba de caer desde la cubierta, decidida a estudiar las corrientes. Por ahora, las aguas turbulentas detectadas provienen principalmente de la estela de nuestra heliosfera. Pero cuando se vaya alejando, percibirá los movimientos de fuentes más profundas en el cosmos. Progresivamente, la presencia de nuestra heliosfera desaparecerá por completo de sus mediciones.

“Tenemos algunas ideas sobre la distancia a la que necesitará llegar Voyager para comenzar a navegar en aguas interestelares más puras, por así decirlo”, dijo Stella Ocker, doctoranda en la Universidad de Cornell en Ithaca, Nueva York, y la miembro más nueva del equipo Voyager. “Pero no estamos del todo seguros de cuándo llegaremos a ese punto”.

El nuevo estudio de Ocker, publicado el 10 de mayo en Nature Astronomy, informa de lo que podría ser la primera medición continua de la densidad de material en el espacio interestelar. “Esta detección nos ofrece una nueva forma de medir la densidad del espacio interestelar y abre una nueva vía para que exploremos la estructura del medio interestelar muy cercano”, dijo Ocker.

Cuando imaginamos el material entre las estrellas (los astrónomos lo llaman el “medio interestelar”, una sopa de partículas y radiación), suponemos un ambiente tranquilo, silencioso y sereno. Sería un error.

“He usado la frase ‘el medio interestelar inactivo’, pero puedes encontrar muchos lugares que no están particularmente inactivos”, dijo Jim Cordes, físico espacial de Cornell y coautor del artículo.

Como el océano, el medio interestelar está lleno de olas turbulentas. Las más grandes provienen de la rotación de nuestra galaxia, ya que el espacio se difumina contra sí mismo y presenta ondulaciones de decenas de años luz de diámetro. Olas más pequeñas (aunque aún así, gigantes) surgen de las explosiones de supernovas, que se extienden a lo largo de miles de millones de kilómetros de cresta a cresta. Las olas más pequeñas suelen ser de nuestro propio Sol, ya que las erupciones solares envían ondas de choque a través del espacio que impregnan los límites de nuestra heliosfera.

Estas olas que chocan revelan pistas sobre la densidad del medio interestelar, un valor que afecta a nuestra comprensión de la forma de nuestra heliosfera, a cómo se forman las estrellas, e incluso a nuestra propia ubicación en la galaxia. A medida que estas ondas reverberan a través del espacio, hacen vibrar los electrones de su alrededor, que resuenan a frecuencias características dependiendo de la densidad en la que se encuentren. Cuanto mayor sea el tono de ese timbre, mayor será la densidad de electrones. El Plasma Wave Subsystem de Voyager 1, que incluye dos antenas que sobresalen 10 metros (30 pies) por detrás de la nave espacial, fue diseñado para detectar ese timbre.

En noviembre de 2012, tres meses después de salir de la heliosfera, Voyager 1 “escuchó sonidos interestelares” por primera vez. Seis meses después, apareció otro “silbido”, esta vez más fuerte y aún más agudo. El medio interestelar parecía volverse más grueso y rápido.

Estos silbidos momentáneos continúan detectándose en intervalos irregulares en los datos de Voyager hoy en día. Son una forma excelente de estudiar la densidad del medio interestelar, pero se necesita algo de paciencia.

“Solo se han visto una vez al año, por lo que confiar en este tipo de eventos fortuitos significaba que nuestro mapa de la densidad del espacio interestelar sería un poco escaso”, dijo Ocker.

Ocker se propuso encontrar una forma para poder medir la densidad media interestelar y así llenar los vacíos, una forma que no dependa de las ondas de choque ocasionales que se propagan desde el Sol. Después de filtrar los datos de Voyager 1, buscando señales débiles pero consistentes, encontró un candidato prometedor. Comenzó a repuntar a mediados de 2017, justo en el momento de otro silbido.

“Es prácticamente un único tono”, dijo Ocker. “Y con el tiempo lo escuchamos cambiar, pero la forma en que varía la frecuencia nos indica cómo está cambiando la densidad”.

Ocker identifica la nueva señal como una emisión de ondas de plasma que también parecía rastrear la densidad del espacio interestelar. Cuando aparecían picos abruptos en los datos, el tono de la emisión subía y bajaba a su vez. La señal también se asemeja a una observada en la atmósfera superior de la Tierra que sigue la densidad de los electrones en ella.

“Esto es muy emocionante, porque podemos estudiar regularmente la densidad en un tramo de espacio muy largo, el tramo de espacio más largo que tenemos hasta ahora”, dijo Ocker. “Esto nos proporciona el mapa más completo de la densidad y el medio interestelar captado por Voyager”.

Según la señal, la densidad de electrones alrededor de Voyager 1 comenzó a aumentar en 2013 y alcanzó sus niveles actuales a mediados de 2015, un aumento de aproximadamente 40 veces. La nave espacial parece estar en un rango de densidad similar, con algunas fluctuaciones, según todo el conjunto de datos que se analizaron y que terminó a principios de 2020.

Ocker y sus colegas actualmente están tratando de desarrollar un modelo físico de cómo se produce la emisión de ondas de plasma, que será clave para su interpretación. Mientras tanto, el Plasma Wave Subsystem de Voyager 1 sigue enviando datos estando cada vez más lejos de casa, donde cada nuevo descubrimiento tiene el potencial de hacernos reimaginar nuestro hogar en el cosmos.

La nave espacial Voyager fue construida por el Laboratorio de Propulsión a Chorro de la NASA, que continúa operando ambas naves. JPL es una división de Caltech en Pasadena. Las misiones Voyager son parte del Observatorio del Sistema de Heliofísica de la NASA, patrocinado por la División de Heliofísica de la Dirección de Misiones Científicas en Washington.

Por Miles Hatfield

Centro de Vuelo Espacial Goddard de la NASA, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Traducido por CEV-MDSCC

Leer en inglés

Términos relacionados

  • Sistema solar

Explora más

voyager 1 en vivo

Eclipses solares: Preguntas frecuentes

Encuentra la respuesta a tu pregunta sobre eclipses solares aquí.

voyager 1 en vivo

Eclipse solar total de 2024: Dónde y cuando

Explora el mapa de la NASA para el eclipse solar total del 8 de abril de 2024.

voyager 1 en vivo

Eclipse solar total de 2024: Qué esperar

El cielo se oscurecerá y, si las condiciones meteorológicas lo permiten, la gente en la trayectoria de la totalidad verá la corona del Sol, o su atmósfera exterior.

  • Medio Ambiente
  • Summit 2024

Jorge Garay

La NASA decodifica un misterioso mensaje de la Voyager 1, incomunicada desde hace meses

Ilustración de la Voyager 1

Desde noviembre de 2023, la sonda Voyager 1 no se comunica adecuadamente con la NASA. Un error desconocido provocó que la nave emitiera un patrón en bucle de ceros y unos, incomprensible y poco útil para los operadores en la Tierra. Cinco meses después, algunos científicos de la agencia espacial han empezado a descifrar la verdadera naturaleza de la críptica señal.

Una parte de los datos ilegibles que emite el subsistema de datos de vuelo (FDS), una de las tres computadoras de la Voyager 1, fue codificada por un ingeniero de la Red de Espacio Profundo de la NASA. Según lo descubierto, los ceros y unos con un orden excéntrico constituyen una lectura de toda la memoria de la FDS. Esta memoria del subsistema de datos de vuelo contiene su código, las instrucciones sobre su misión principal y un registro de las variables en su fuente que provocan un cambio en el comportamiento de la nave. La NASA ha expresado que ahora pueden comparar esas lecturas con las emitidas por la Voyager 1 antes de presentar el fallo para detectar discrepancias en el código fuente.

El trabajo requerirá tiempo. La comunicación con la sonda actualmente toma casi 45 horas debido a su posición, a más de 24 mil millones de kilómetros de la Tierra. Se necesitan 22.5 horas para emitir un diagnóstico y el mismo tiempo adicional para enviar una instrucción, incluso cuando las ondas viajan a velocidades similares a la luz. Es solo cuestión de algunas semanas más para que los expertos consigan corregir el enlace.

Luna S/2023 U1 de Urano.

La larga marcha de las Voyager

Tanto la Voyager 1 como su hermana, la Voyager 2, son los módulos que más lejos han llegado en la historia de los viajes espaciales. Partieron de la Tierra en 1977 con el firme propósito de explorar el sistema solar exterior, visitar cada planeta y después emprender un viaje al espacio interestelar. Llevan consigo un disco de oro que contiene información sobre los seres humanos, la ubicación del planeta, las unidades de medida que se usan en la ciencia y características atmosféricas de la Tierra.

No es la primera vez que las naves enfrentan problemas para comunicarse con la Tierra. En 2023, la Voyager 2 también atravesó un periodo de silencio luego de que se le enviara un comando erróneo. Dicha anomalía desvió su antena principal hasta un punto donde no podía recibir señales de la NASA. Para resolver el inconveniente, los científicos recurrieron a un transmisor superpotente para obligar a la sonda a “voltear” hacia el planeta y recibir el código correcto. El proceso de confirmación fue complejo para el equipo. Tardaron 37 horas en comprobar si la nave funcionaba correctamente.

voyager 1 en vivo

Los periodos de silencio de las Voyager no suponen una pérdida de información valiosa para los astrónomos. Calla Cofield, portavoz del Instituto de Propulsión a Chorro de la NASA, aseguró a WIRED que: “la ciencia de las Voyager no es algo que necesites monitorear constantemente. Están estudiando esta región del espacio a larga distancia, así que un intervalo de unas semanas no perjudicará esos estudios”.

El vuelo consciente de las naves no será eterno. Ambas portan generadores termoeléctricos de radioisótopos con plutonio-238. En algún momento, esa batería se agotará y todos los servicios de las Voyager se apagarán. Lo único que llevarán son los discos de oro, que contienen toda la información relevante sobre la humanidad tal como era en 1970.

El esperado eclipse solar de abril estará acompañado por el paso del cometa diablo

Por Jorge Garay

Los errores de Photoshop más evidentes en la foto de Kate Middleton

Por Reece Rogers

Así es la primera batería de gravedad china del tamaño de un edificio

También te puede interesar…

Saiph Savage, la ingeniera que quiere democratizar la IA para las mujeres y los trabajadores.

Ellas son las mujeres que nos protegerán de los riesgos de la IA en América Latina.

📨 Mantente al tanto de las últimas noticias de WIRED desde Google News o en nuestro Canal de WhatsApp .

Entrevistamos al protagonista del evento de Willy Wonka en Escocia para saber por qué fue un perturbador desastre viral.

Conoce a las mujeres que están marcando el futuro de la ciencia y la tecnología.

La cruzada científica por llevar la terapia con hongos de psilocibina a la salud pública en México.

La NASA revela el contenido de Bennu: 121 gramos de polvo de asteroide

Por Eric Berger, Ars Technica

‘Odysseus’ busca ser la primera nave privada en hacer un alunizaje exitoso

Por Marta Musso

¿Por qué los astronautas a veces usan un traje blanco y otras uno naranja?

Por Manuel de León

El cinturón de Kuiper que rodea al sistema solar es mucho más grande de lo que pensábamos

Por Anna Lagos

voyager 1 en vivo

NASA gave Voyager 1 a 'poke' amid communication woes. Here's why the response was encouraging.

T he mission of one of NASA's twin Voyager space probes has been in peril for months as the space agency has been unable to receive usable data from the craft launched 46 years ago to explore the far reaches of the cosmos.

But a recent "poke" sent to Voyager 1 as it travels 15.1 billion miles away from Earth has given engineers a reason for optimism when they received a response earlier in March.

Mission control prodded Voyager 1 and received a new signal March 3 that they began working furiously to decode days later. By March 10, the team determined that what they had was a memory readout, which may contain valuable data to allow them to restore regular communications with Voyager 1, NASA said .

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

The 46-year-old pioneering probe has continually defied expectations for its lifespan as it ventures further into uncharted territory of the cosmos . NASA had hoped Voyager 1's extended mission would allow the spacecraft to beam back valuable data through 2025 .

But a communication breakdown in November put that goal in peril.

SpaceX launch: Starship lost, but successful in third test; here's what happened in past launches

Unexpected issue caused Voyager 1 to send home gibberish

Voyager 1 has never ceased sending a steady radio signal to ground control operators on Earth, but that signal has not carried any usable data since November, NASA said.

Instead, the probe's telemetry modulation unit began sending a nonsensical repeating patterns of code.

The space agency traced the source of the communication breakdown to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, known as the flight data subsystem, which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s beamed to Earth.

In order to figure out what was going on, mission control sent a "poke" March 1 commanding Voyager 1's flight data subsystem to run different sequences in case a software corruption was causing the issue. Within two days, NASA got the response for which it hoped.

On March 3, the Voyager mission team noticed that activity from one section of the flight data subsystem, was different from the rest of the computer's unreadable data stream. Because it still wasn't in the format used by Voyager 1 when it's properly sending data, the team was confused.

The array of giant radio network antennas known as the  Deep Space Network that communicates with both Voyager probes decoded the signal and found that it contained a readout of the subsystem's entire memory – its coding, as well as the science and engineering data its collected. The discovered readout provided an opportunity for the team to analyze it for discrepancies in the code that could have caused the ongoing issue.

"Using that information to devise a potential solution and attempt to put it into action will take time," NASA said.

What is the mission of NASA Voyager probes?

The  twin Voyager probes  were launched on separate dates in 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida and have since traveled billions of miles away from Earth.

In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space, followed in 2018 by Voyager 2,  according to NA S A .

The probes' main mission is to explore the far reaches of our solar system ‒ and beyond. To that end, the spacecrafts have investigated all the giant planets of our outer solar system ‒ Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune ‒ as well as the planets' magnetic fields and a combined 48 of their moons,  NASA says .

But both Voyager 1 and 2 also carry a  greeting  to any form of life they may encounter called the Golden Record.

Famed American astronomer Carl Sagan chaired the committee tasked with selecting the contents of the message, contained on a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk. The phonograph records contain aspects that encapsulate life on Earth, such as  samples of music  from different cultures and eras, natural and man-made  sounds from Earth , and electronic information encoded in analog form that an advanced civilization could convert into  photographs .

Voyager 2 also recently lost contact with NASA

In July, Voyager 2 also experienced a communication breakdown with mission control when its antenna was inadvertently pointed into the wrong direction .

Contact was lost July 21 with Voyager 2 after mission control transmitted routine commands that inadvertently triggered a 2-degree change in the craft's antenna orientation and disrupted the deep-space probe's ability to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.

Fortunately, contact was restored in August when NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent an interstellar "shout" that successfully commanded the craft, which is now 12.6 billion miles away, to reorient itself.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASA gave Voyager 1 a 'poke' amid communication woes. Here's why the response was encouraging.

This NASA file handout image from 2002 shows one of the twin Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

COMMENTS

  1. Voyager

    MET Instrument Status Where are the Voyagers now? To learn more about Voyager, zoom in and give the spacecraft a spin. View the full interactive experience at Eyes on the Solar System. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have reached "Interstellar space" and each continue their unique journey through the Universe.

  2. Voyager

    Voyager 1 Cosmic Ray Data Voyager 2 Distance from Earth 12,677,898,828 mi 136.38634447 AU Voyager 2 Distance from Sun 12,636,757,968 mi 135.94375917 AU Voyager 2 One-Way Light Time 18:54:17 (hh:mm:ss) Voyager 2 Cosmic Ray Data Voyager 1 Distance from Earth 15,137,740,253 mi 162.84883517 AU Voyager 1 Distance from Sun 15,137,233,344 mi

  3. Voyager 1 Tracker

    High precision real time tracking tool for Voyager 1 which can be used identify Voyager 1 and follow its movements across deep sky stellar fields.

  4. Voyager 1

    Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, to study the outer Solar System and beyond. It is currently the most distant human-made object from Earth, having traveled over 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the Sun. Voyager 1's mission has included flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, with the goal of studying their moons, rings, and magnetic fields.

  5. Voyager 1

    Voyager 1 reached interstellar space in August 2012 and is the most distant human-made object in existence. Launched just shortly after its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, in 1977, Voyager 1 explored the Jovian and Saturnian systems discovering new moons, active volcanoes and a wealth of data about the outer solar system. Voyagers 1 and 2 were ...

  6. Voyager

    Voyager 1, already the most distant human-made object in the cosmos, reaches 100 astronomical units from the sun on Tuesday. That means the spacecraft, which launched three decades ago, will be 100 times more distant from the sun than Earth is. ... With one of its two spacecraft en route to distant Neptune and the other exploring the outer ...

  7. Voyager 1: 'The Spacecraft That Could' Hits New Milestone

    Voyager 1 is literally venturing into the great unknown and is approaching interstellar space. Traveling at a speed of about one million miles per day, Voyager 1 could cross into interstellar space within the next 10 years. "Interstellar space is filled with material ejected by explosions of nearby stars," Stone said.

  8. NASA Voyager 1 Encounters New Region in Deep Space

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-0724. [email protected]. Dwayne Brown. 202-358-1726. [email protected]. 2012-381. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region at the far reaches of our solar system that scientists feel is the final area the spacecraft has to cross before reaching interstellar space.

  9. Voyager 1

    Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It was launched 16 days after its twin Voyager 2.

  10. La Voyager 1 de la NASA capta el sonido del gas interestelar

    La Voyager 1, una de las dos naves que la NASA envió hace 44 años al espacio interestelar y que ya es el objeto fabricado por el ser humano que más lejos ha llegado, sigue avanzando hacia el...

  11. Sonda Voyager 1 detecta zumbido de gas interestelar

    2:57 México La indeleble huella de Filiberto Vázquez Vida Novia da el "sí" previo a entrar en labor de parto ¿En dónde se grabó "Dune: Parte Dos"? Emoción, goles y "show" en la primera...

  12. Voyager 1 and 2: The Interstellar Mission

    Crédito: NASA Voyager 1 y 2 también descubrieron volcanes activos en Io, una de las lunas de Júpiter , y mucho más. Voyager 2 también tomó imágenes de Urano y Neptuno. En conjunto, la misión Voyager descubrió 22 lunas. Desde entonces, estas astronaves continúan su viaje alejándose de nosotros.

  13. NASA SVS

    This visualization tracks the trajectory of the Voyager 1 spacecraft through the solar system. Launched on September 5, 1977, it was one of two spacecraft sent to visit the giant planets of the outer solar system. Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn before being directed out of the solar system.To fit the 40 year history of the mission into a short visualization, the pacing of time ...

  14. 45 Years Ago: Voyager 1 Begins its Epic Journey to the Outer ...

    Today, 45 years after its launch and 14.6 billion miles from Earth, four of Voyager 1's 11 instruments continue to return useful data, having now spent 10 years in interstellar space. Signals from the spacecraft take nearly 22 hours to reach Earth, and 22 hours for Earth-based signals to reach the spacecraft.

  15. La vieja Voyager 1 envía una respuesta sorprendente después de que la

    Así mantiene la NASA funcionando la nave Voyager tras 46 años 2:36. (CNN) -- Los ingenieros dieron un "empujón" a la sonda Voyager 1 y recibieron una respuesta potencialmente alentadora, ya que ...

  16. Alan Cummings Has Worked on the Voyager Mission for Over 50 Years

    Mar 6, 2024, 3:55 PM PST. The Voyager 1 spacecraft launched after Voyager 2. NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC. Alan Cummings has worked on the Voyager mission for over 50 years. Since their launch, the two ...

  17. ¿Cómo se oye el universo? Sonda Voyager 1 capta 'la ...

    Cargando Video... ¿Cómo se oye el universo? Sonda Voyager 1 capta 'la banda sonora' del espacio interestelar La astronave Voyager 1 -la primera en entrar a una región más allá de nuestro...

  18. Voyager

    Mission Overview. The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. Continuing on their more-than-40-year journey since their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the sun than Pluto. In August 2012, Voyager 1 made the historic entry into interstellar space, the region between ...

  19. Voyager 1

    On February 17, 1998, Voyager 1 overtook the space probe Pioneer 10 (launched 1972) to become the most distant human-made object in space. By 2004 both Voyagers were well beyond the orbit of Pluto.In 2012 the Voyagers became the longest-operating spacecraft, having functioned for 35 years and still periodically transmitting data. On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 became the first space probe to ...

  20. NASA SVS

    At 122 times our distance from the sun, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is the first human-made object to leave the heliosphere, the far-reaching extended atmosphere of the sun. Launched in 1997, Voyager 1 is traveling away from Earth at a speed of about 340 million miles (540 million kilometers) per year. In the summer of 2012, Voyager 1 started its journey into interstellar space, or the space ...

  21. NASA/JPL Eyes

    Discover the fascinating journey of OSIRIS-REx, NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, in this interactive 3D simulation. Follow the spacecraft as it orbits and explores the asteroid Bennu, and witness its historic touchdown and sample collection. You can also compare OSIRIS-REx with other NASA missions and orreries in the eyes.nasa.gov website.

  22. Nuevos datos de Voyager 1 de la NASA podrían cambiar nuestro concepto

    Watch on La nave espacial Voyager 1 de la NASA capturó estos sonidos del espacio interestelar. El instrumento de ondas de plasma de la Voyager 1 detectó las vibraciones del denso plasma interestelar, o gas ionizado, de octubre a noviembre de 2012 y de abril a mayo de 2013.

  23. La NASA repara sonda a millones de kilómetros de distancia

    La sonda espacial Voyager 1, enviada al espacio por la NASA en 1977, se encuentra a una distancia de aproximadamente 23.500 millones de kilómetros de nuestro planeta. A pesar de la enorme...

  24. Aging Voyager 1 sends back surprising response after 'poke ...

    Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth at about 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away. Meanwhile, Voyager 2 has traveled more than 12.6 billion miles (20.3 billion ...

  25. Voyager 1 briefly came back to life after a 'poke' from NASA, giving

    Undeterred, NASA engineers have been working to rescue the data. A "poke" sent to Voyager 1's internal systems on March 3 may have brought it back from the brink, NASA announced on Wednesday.

  26. La NASA decodifica un misterioso mensaje de la Voyager 1, incomunicada

    La larga marcha de las Voyager. Tanto la Voyager 1 como su hermana, la Voyager 2, son los módulos que más lejos han llegado en la historia de los viajes espaciales. Partieron de la Tierra en 1977 con el firme propósito de explorar el sistema solar exterior, visitar cada planeta y después emprender un viaje al espacio interestelar.

  27. NASA's Voyager 1 Spacecraft made some sense for the first time in ...

    Voyager 1 is currently 15.14 billion miles away (24.4 billion kilometers), flying at a speed of 38,000 miles per hour (61,155 kilometers per hour). Because of this vast distance, it takes around ...

  28. Can NASA fix Voyager 1? New signal offers hope

    Voyager 1 is currently very far away from Earth, over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers). Because of this huge distance, it takes around 22.5 hours for the radio signal to reach the ...

  29. NASA gave Voyager 1 a 'poke' amid communication woes. Here's why ...

    In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space, followed in 2018 by Voyager 2, according to NA S A. The probes' main mission is to explore the far reaches of our solar ...