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Voyager 1, now in interstellar space, hears an ominous hum - Yahoo Entertainment

Voyager 1, now in interstellar space, hears an ominous hum - Yahoo Entertainment

Voyager 1, now in interstellar space, hears an ominous hum - Yahoo Entertainment
May 12, 2021 2 mins, 37 secs

The vast majority of NASA’s most interesting projects are ones that are fresh and new, like the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter.

As technology advances, NASA can do more and more interesting and revolutionary things, but sometimes decades-old technology can still provide scientists with novel insights, especially when that technology was blasted into space with the sole purpose of getting as far away from Earth as it can.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is currently over 14.1 billion miles from Earth.

Despite that incredible distance, the spacecraft is still able to relay data back to Earth, and new discoveries are still being made.

In a new paper published in Nature Astronomy, researchers studying the spacecraft’s data reveal that Voyager 1 can now hear something in interstellar space, and they think they know what it is.

In the case of Voyager 1, it’s been picking up the faint hum of plasma waves in the interstellar medium.

If you’re interested in keeping up with the Voyager 1 spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory maintains a very useful website that offers real-time data on speed, distance from Earth, and other interesting statistics.

The rocket booster, designated B1051, launched on Sunday morning.

Not only that, but the booster did what it had already done nine times previous and performed a controlled landing on a SpaceX drone ship parked in the ocean.

B1051 is the first SpaceX booster to reach the 10-launch milestone.

That's not to say that the company's previous boosters couldn't have done the same, but SpaceX has at times chosen not to recover its boosters.

Other times, the boosters were lost due to no fault of the rocket itself.

Also, as Ars Technica notes, SpaceX boss Elon Musk has long been of the opinion that a 10-launch booster is a goal that the company should be shooting for.

If SpaceX can make this incredible accomplishment seem like business as usual, it will be succeeding at producing reusable spacecraft hardware at a level that rivals NASA's own Space Shuttle program.

Being able to reuse a rocket many times over is also a huge advantage for a company that is in the midst of building its own satellite-based high-speed data network.

The cost of launching 60 Starlink satellites is a lot more reasonable when you can reuse the same rocket 10+ times, with each launch adding another 60 satellites to the growing horde.

There's a very good chance that the rocket booster will be retired and put on display, though there's been no confirmation from SpaceX one way or the other.

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

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.

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