'The sound of the universe': NASA's Voyager-1 spacecraft sends back data revealing the 'hum' of interstellar gas from 14 BILLION miles away
NASA's Voyager-1 spacecraft, travelling outside the solar system, has sent back new data revealing a 'hum' given off by interstellar gas 14 billion miles from the Earth.
The spacecraft, currently further away from the Earth than any human-made object before it, launched 44 years ago to study the gas giants of the outer solar system.
Its instruments have now recorded the 'constant drone' of plasma - the fourth state of matter that makes up 99.9 per cent of the universe - while in interstellar space.The very faint and monotone sound has been sent back to Earth by Voyager-1 in a 'narrow frequency bandwidth'.
Cornell University astronomers, who carried out the analysis of the interstellar hum, say the signal carrying the data was so weak it isn't audible without manipulation.
It's hoped that the discovery of a constant hum will help astronomers understand more about how the medium interacts with the very edges of the Sun's solar winds. Source
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