Voyager 1 is still transmitting from beyond the heliosphere on 22 watts — less power than the bulb in your hallway — and the engineers who built it in the 1970s never expected we'd still be listening

inari@piefed.zip · 5 months ago

Voyager 1 is still transmitting from beyond the heliosphere on 22 watts — less power than the bulb in your hallway — and the engineers who built it in the 1970s never expected we'd still be listening

Arancello@aussie.zone · 5 months ago

this is the kind of content i come here for! love it.

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 5 months ago

That was back when bulbs lasted almost forever until they changed them so they’d break earlier so you’d have to spend money to buy more bulbs. Voyager is like the bulbs of old.

inari@piefed.zip · 5 months ago

NASA has a neat little video showing the path taken by Voyager 1: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4139

A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · edit-2 5 months ago

Very interesting. So they both manouvred (slingshot) using planets’ gravity wells? Not everything in SciFi is fiction I guess.

And V1 has traveled further from our solar system than the solar system’s diameter. Wow.

Extremely high bitrate on the video due to starry background, btw. My old lappy got wheezy.

ruuster13@lemmy.zip · 5 months ago

In the scientific fiction genre, everything is scientifically possible. That’s the entire premise. Time tells us what they get right and what becomes fantasy.

Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 5 months ago

Yes, and there was a 175 year window for the planets to be lined up like that.

A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 5 months ago

You mean the planets just sat there for 175 years? Wow, I really learned something new today.

Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 5 months ago

Windows to use all the gas giants for gravity slingshots in quick succession only occur every 175 years. Is that better?

[deleted]@piefed.world · 5 months ago

Voyager 1 is still transmitting from beyond the heliosphere on 22 watts — less power than the bulb in your hallway — and the engineers who built it in the 1970s never expected we'd still be listening

Voyager 1 is still transmitting from beyond the heliosphere on 22 watts — less power than the bulb in your hallway — and the engineers who built it in the 1970s never expected we'd still be listening

Voyager 1 is still transmitting from beyond the heliosphere on 22 watts — less power than the bulb in your hallway — and the engineers who built it in the 1970s never expected we'd still be listening half a century later.