NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA s Voyager 1 probe has detected a faint, constant hum in the space beyond our solar system.
When charged gas ripples through interstellar space, those ripples emit a detectable vibration.
The Voyager 1 spacecraft left Earth more than 40 years ago and entered interstellar space in 2012.
More than 14 billion miles from Earth, NASA s Voyager 1 spacecraft is listening to the background music of interstellar space.
The probe, which launched more than 40 years ago, exited our solar system in 2012. Five years after its interstellar foray began, Voyager 1 began picking up a monotonous droning.
According to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, the spacecraft is detecting the constant burble of charged gas, known as plasma. The sound is created as this plasma ripples through the interstellar medium a soup of radiation, gaseous particles, and dust that fills the space between stars.
Voyager space probe detects eerie interstellar hum 14 billion miles from Earth
After 44 years the spacecraft – about the size of a small car – is finally clear of the Sun s influence and its instruments have detected the background noise of the galaxy
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Voyager 1, which is the farthest human-made object from Earth and the first to enter interstellar space, has been detecting a âfaint, persistent humâ that scientists have attributed to interstellar gas.
Phys.org, citing research published in Nature Astronomy, reported that the spacecraftâs Plasma Wave System has picked up a âpersistent signature produced by the tenuous near-vacuum of space.â
James Cordes, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, reportedly described the sound as a âquiet or gentle rain.â
âIn the case of a solar outburst, itâs like detecting a lightning burst in a thunderstorm and then itâs back to a gentle rain,â he said.
Voyager spacecraft detects ‘persistent hum’ beyond our solar system
One of the Earth’s longest-flying spacecraft has detected a “persistent hum” beyond our solar system, according to a new study.
NASA’s Voyager 1 launched on September 5 1977, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket, just weeks after its sister craft, Voyager 2. Although they were initially designed to last five years, more than 43 years after they launched, the crafts are still sending back data as they explore interstellar space.
Instruments aboard Voyager 1, which has moved past the edge of the solar system, through the solar system’s border with interstellar space, known as the heliopause, and into the interstellar medium, have detected the sounds of plasma waves, according to research published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.