At 12 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) from Earth, Voyager 2 is so far that it takes more than 22 hours for NASA’s signals to reach the probe. With its power gradually diminishing, mission planners thought they might have to shut down one of its five scientific instruments next year, but a newly implemented plan has resulted in a welcomed delay.
A recent adjustment, in which the probe redirects a tiny amount of power meant for an onboard safety system, means all five scientific instruments aboard Voyager 2 can stay active until 2026, according to a NASA Jet Propulsion Lab press release. There’s a modicum of risk involved, as the affected system protects Voyager 2 from voltage irregularities, but NASA says the probe can now keep its science instruments turned on for a while longer.
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Voyager 2, along with its twin companion Voyager 1, are the probes that just keep on ticking. Launched in 1977, the spacecraft visited several planets in the outer solar system before tickling the outer fringes of the heliosphere—a protective bubble-like region of space that surrounds the Sun and shields us from harmful radiation pouring in from interstellar space. The probes are still active and gathering unprecedented data about the heliosphere and its protective qualities.
Read more: Gizmodo
