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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voyager 2 | 4/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2 | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:27:05.900649+00:00 | kb-cron |
In 1992, Voyager 2 observed the nova V1974 Cygni in the far-ultraviolet, first of its kind. The further increase in the brightness at those wavelengths helped in the more detailed study of the nova. In July 1994, an attempt was made to observe the impacts from fragments of the comet Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with Jupiter. The craft's position meant it had a direct line of sight to the impacts and observations were made in the ultraviolet and radio spectrum. Voyager 2 failed to detect anything, with calculations showing that the fireballs were just below the craft's limit of detection. On November 29, 2006, a telemetered command to Voyager 2 was incorrectly decoded by its on-board computer—in a random error—as a command to turn on the electrical heaters of the spacecraft's magnetometer. These heaters remained turned on until December 4, 2006, and during that time, there was a resulting high temperature above 130 °C (266 °F), significantly higher than the magnetometers were designed to endure, and a sensor rotated away from the correct orientation. On August 30, 2007, Voyager 2 passed the termination shock and then entered into the heliosheath, approximately 1 billion mi (1.6 billion km) closer to the Sun than Voyager 1 did. This is due to the interstellar magnetic field of deep space. The southern hemisphere of the Solar System's heliosphere is being pushed in. On April 22, 2010, Voyager 2 encountered scientific data format problems. On May 17, 2010, JPL engineers revealed that a flipped bit in an on-board computer had caused the problem, and scheduled a bit reset for May 19. On May 23, 2010, Voyager 2 resumed sending science data from deep space after engineers fixed the flipped bit. In 2013, it was originally thought that Voyager 2 would enter interstellar space in two to three years, with its plasma spectrometer providing the first direct measurements of the density and temperature of the interstellar plasma. However, Voyager project scientist Edward C. Stone and his colleagues said they lacked evidence of what would be the key signature of interstellar space: a shift in the direction of the magnetic field. Finally, in December 2018, Stone announced that Voyager 2 reached interstellar space on November 5, 2018.
Maintenance to the Deep Space Network cut outbound contact with the probe for eight months in 2020. Contact was reestablished on November 2, when a series of instructions was transmitted, subsequently executed, and relayed back with a successful communication message. On February 12, 2021, full communications were restored after a major ground station antenna upgrade that took a year to complete. In October 2020, astronomers reported a significant unexpected increase in density in the space beyond the Solar System as detected by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2; this implies that "the density gradient is a large-scale feature of the VLISM (very local interstellar medium) in the general direction of the heliospheric nose". On July 18, 2023, Voyager 2 overtook Pioneer 10 as the second farthest spacecraft from the Sun. On July 21, 2023, a programming error misaligned Voyager 2's high gain antenna 2 degrees away from Earth, breaking communications with the spacecraft. By August 1, the spacecraft's carrier signal was detected using multiple antennas of the Deep Space Network. A high-power "shout" on August 4 sent from the Canberra station successfully commanded the spacecraft to reorient towards Earth, resuming communications. As a failsafe measure, the probe is also programmed to autonomously reset its orientation to point towards Earth, which would have occurred by October 15.
== Reductions in capabilities == As the power from the RTG slowly reduces, various items of equipment have been turned off on the spacecraft. The first science equipment turned off on Voyager 2 was the PPS in 1991, which saved 1.2 watts.
=== Concerns with the orientation thrusters === Some thrusters needed to control the correct attitude of the spacecraft and to point its high-gain antenna in the direction of Earth are out of use due to clogging problems in their hydrazine injector. The spacecraft no longer has backups available for its thruster system and "everything onboard is running on single-string" as acknowledged by Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at JPL, in an interview with Ars Technica. NASA has decided to patch the computer software in order to modify the functioning of the remaining thrusters to slow down the clogging of the small diameter hydrazine injector jets. Before uploading the software update on the Voyager 1 computer, NASA will first try the procedure with Voyager 2, which is closer to Earth.
== Future of the probe == The probe is expected to keep transmitting weak radio messages until at least the mid-2020s, more than 48 years after it was launched. NASA says that "The Voyagers are destined—perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way." Voyager 2 is not headed toward any particular star. The nearest star is 4.2 light-years away, and at 15.341 km/s, the spacecraft travels one light-year in about 19,541 years — during which time the nearby stars will also move substantially. In roughly 42,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass the star Ross 248 (10.30 light-years away from Earth) at a distance of 1.7 light-years. If undisturbed for 296,000 years, Voyager 2 should pass by the star Sirius (8.6 light-years from Earth) at a distance of 4.3 light-years.
== Golden record ==