What did the Voyager probes really find in space? - VastlyCurious

    Voyager 1 has photographed several amazing pictures of the planets in the outer solar system and their moons. The first image of our entire solar system called as the "Solar System family portrait" was taken by the Voyager one cameras and it was taken from 40 AU (6 billion kms/3.7 billion miles) from the Sun. After capturing the "Pale Blue Dot" image, the cameras onboard the Voyager 1 were turned off to save power for the remainder of the mission. There are several amazing things voyager probes discovered about our Universe.

The Discoveries made by the Voyager probes

Finding the mysterious of Heliosphere

    The Heliosphere is the place in the solar winds are observed, outside the heliosphere is the area in which the interstellar medium starts. It was believed that the solar winds don't flow outside the heliosphere, but the information, we got from the voyager probes proved that there is a leak in the heliosphere. The Voyager 2 probe detected the solar winds outside the heliosphere after it went to interstellar space in 2018 whereas Voyager 1 couldn't detect the solar particles inside the heliosphere. That collapsed our understanding of the Heliosphere.

The Voyager probes travelling outside the Heliosphere

    Later, Scientists found out that Voyager 1 probe couldn't detect the solar particles outside the heliosphere because it left the heliosphere during the solar minimum and the Voyager 2 arrived at the interstellar medium at a different time when the solar activity was maximum. The observations made from the Voyager probes helped us understand the star activity of our sun better. The mysteries of the Heliopause are not yet solved completely as more serious discoveries were made when the probes when to interstellar space. Some mind-boggling studies have been made in interstellar space.

Interstellar space

    

Interstellar space

    The findings made from the voyager craft proved that the plasma in the interstellar space is denser than the plasma present inside the heliosphere. Another surprising discovery the Voyager made is that it found that the magnetic field outside the heliosphere is in sync with the magnetic field in the interstellar medium. This discovery shook Scientists and Astrophysicists across the globe as the magnetic field in the interstellar medium was never thought to be the same or sync with the sun's magnetic field. We haven't found out the cause of this strange phenomenon and unfortunately, we won't be solving this mystery any time soon as we might lose connection with the Voyager probes soon.

Findings on Jupiter

Jupiter's Giant Red Spot

    The Voyager one took detailed photographs of Jupiter's Giant Red spot and it also found two new moons of Jupiter, Thebe and Metis. In march 1979 it was close to Jupiter and it took spectacular photos of the surface of the planet and the great storm. The most active stellar body in the solar system was found to be one of Jupiter's moons, IO which was found to be having at least eight active volcanoes spitting the lava into space. The images taken on its flyby mission to Jupiter gave us information about the giant storm occurring on the planet and how the winds around the storm propel the storm across the planet. We also found out that the planet's storms were shrinking in size and the storm could dissolve in a few years.

Saturn's Rings

The Rings of Saturn

   Voyager one spacecraft found five new moons around Saturn and it took clear images of the planets. Saturn's biggest moon Titan, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea were photographed and observed on the flyby mission on Saturn. These moons were found to have water inside them and the Saturn's biggest moon Titan was found to be having water on its surface. Saturn's rings were closely observed during the flyby mission on Saturn, earlier the number of rings around Saturn was observed to be lesser than the actual number of rings around it. The 7 rings were found around the Saturn and they were photographed by the Voyager's cameras and send to Earth.

Conclusion

    Although the mission was planned to explore only the outer planets of the solar system, it exceeded its expectations. It has been finding amazing discoveries so far and it had helped us understand the universe and our place it. Unfortunately the two probes will stop sending signals back to Earth within a few years as its battery is going to run out of fuel after 40+ years of service. It made history as the first human spacecraft to enter interstellar space and it will continue its journey forever into the unknown.