23.314 billion kilometers, a distance beyond our comprehension, is 155.43 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, and 60713.54 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.
However, such a distant distance doesn't exist only in the dream world, and a man-made spaceship in the real world set a distance record of 23.314 billion kilometers on January 15, 2022, which you might think is simply a miracle, but for this spacecraft, it is almost a miracle every day.
The spacecraft that worked the miracle was neither Hayabusa2 of Japan, which flew to another near-Earth asteroid, nor OSIRIS-REx of the United States, which was returning with asteroid ore, but American Voyager 1, which was flying in interstellar medium.
There is nothing in the interstellar medium, no reference object, and it is impossible to show how fast the Voyager 1 spacecraft is, only to see Voyager 1 zooming in and out, but the relative speed of Voyager 1 and the sun is 16.9995 km/s, faster than the space station in low-Earth orbit.
Launched in 1977, counting the time, The American Voyager 1 has been flying in deep space for a full 44 years, of course, Voyager 1 has also explored for 44 consecutive years, in such a long period of time, What did Voyager 1 reveal?
Reveals the true shape of the sun's magnetic bubbles, like "pork belly"
The sun is a spherical star, then the scope of the sun's magnetic field is naturally also spherical, like a huge bubble, covering the entire solar system, so it is called "solar magnetic bubble", in the past, scientists have always believed that the solar magnetic bubble is spherical, with a radius of about 14 billion kilometers.
But this is not true, in 2015, Voyager 1 crossed the outermost layer of the solar magnetic bubble, revealing that the solar magnetic bubble is not spherical, with two high bulges at both ends, looking like a "croissant", and the 2017 Cassini spacecraft, once again revealed the solar magnetic bubble, similar to an elliptical rugby ball.
But this is not comprehensive, in 2020, American scientists compiled a number of spacecraft exploration data such as Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and New Horizons, revealing the true shape of the solar bubble, like "pork belly", a huge "pig belly", with a diameter of more than tens of billions of kilometers, completely updating our cognition.
A large mass of material flew out of the solar system at great speed
In 2020, Voyager 1 once again revealed a phenomenon: a large mass of material is flying out of the solar system at great speed, quickly entering the interstellar medium, and it did not take long to overtake Voyager 1 and run in front of Voyager 1.
Voyager 1 discovered that the blob of material was neither an alien spacecraft nor a wandering planet, but a large stream of high-speed charged particles. When a large number of sunspots appear on the surface of the sun, a large number of high-energy charged particle streams will be blown out wildly, which is a solar storm, and the charged particle flow is invisible to the naked eye, but the Voyager 1 scientific instrument can detect it.
Do you know how fast high-energy charged particles are? The speed is even more than 800 km / s, which is 47 times the speed of Voyager 1, so it took only one year for high-energy charged particles to fly out of the solar system into the interstellar medium, but also flew to the front of Voyager 1, flying a distance of 26 billion kilometers.
High-energy charged particles fly out at great speed, and cosmic ray particles just fly in at extreme speed, the two particles meet and violently collide, cosmic ray particles are bounced back, moving away from the solar system at a speed close to the speed of light, and high-energy charged particles also become stagnant due to collision.
The more the ship flies, the denser the particles become
Solar magnetic bubble is the range that the solar wind can affect, space is filled with a large number of charged particles, about 4 to 11 per cubic centimeter, the closer to the sun, the more particles should be, and the sun magnetic bubble belongs to real space, there should be almost no particles, but the truth is not so.
17.9 billion km away interstellar medium, particle density 0.039 electrons / cubic centimeter, 18.3 billion km away interstellar medium, particle density 0.055 electrons / cubic centimeter, 18.5 billion km away interstellar medium, particle density 0.12 electrons / cubic centimeter. 21.1 billion kilometers away in the interstellar medium, particle density 0.13 electrons/cubic centimeter.
The more the spacecraft flies outward, the greater the particle density, from 0.039 electrons/cubic centimeters to 0.13 electrons/cubic centimeters, which should be the solar magnetic bubble blocking particles from the universe outside the magnetic bubble layer, and a large number of particles temporarily accumulate near the solar magnetic bubble due to slower speed.
A "buzzing" sound is heard
In 2021, Voyager 1 made a new discovery, hearing a strange "buzzing" sound from plasma waves in interstellar space, the "buzzing" sound was weak and monotonous, and American scientists speculated that the "buzzing" sound may be a high-energy particle hitting the invisible gas, triggering a "buzzing" sound.
summary
Although the Voyager 1 mission cost $1 billion before and after, and the mission lasted for 44 years, Voyager 1 not only set a number of world records, but also collected a large amount of priceless scientific data, revealing the mysterious outer space, allowing us to understand the real interstellar space, which is completely different from what we imagined.
Unfortunately, Voyager 1 is about to run out of oil lamps, and around 2025 it will bid farewell to human beings on Earth forever, lose contact forever, and never send back any data, but this does not affect its flight path, relying on inertia to fly all the way, ten thousand years, hundreds of millions of years, ten billion years.
Perhaps the Earth humans have already carried out alien colonization, and Voyager 1 is still a wandering spaceship, traveling through the vast interstellar space. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration