How has Voyager 1 and 2 not melted?

SnakeEyeSS · November 24, 2019

If anyone has been following the recent space news Voyager 2 is passing the heliosphere and is confirming what Voyager 1 saw, that's it's around 90,000°F degrees outside our solar system. In fact, the lowest temps they found are higher than what the biggest minds in science thought was probable.

Besides another great reminder that the usually smug(you know, the ones that used to say there probably wasn't any other Earth like planets in the Galaxy) theorectical scientists are nearly always wrong about what is outside our planets and how the universe works:

HOW DID THE THINGS NOT MELT!

I have read three articles about it and they says the probes are swimming along nicely. Considering we can't make a metal that can survive those temps now, and especially since the Voyagers were built in the 70's......HOW?

I haven't seen anything that suggests it's got some kind of IR type thermometer and it has luckily avoided the pockets of the plasma, which is the only thing I can think of.

HeySkippyDog · November 24, 2019

Is the sensor reporting correct thermal data, or is age/range affecting the data?

I've had thermocouple wire at work develop a short and report +/- 645C in a 25C room.

Also, to experience that level of heat, something has to be generating it. If they aren't near the sun or a star like it, where is the heat coming from?

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SnakeEyeSS · November 25, 2019

1 hour ago, HeySkippyDog said:

Is the sensor reporting correct thermal data, or is age/range affecting the data?

I've had thermocouple wire at work develop a short and report +/- 645C in a 25C room.

Also, to experience that level of heat, something has to be generating it. If they aren't near the sun or a star like it, where is the heat coming from?

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T ithey are saying it's pockets of interstellar plasma that our sun's solar winds keep out. Think of how the Earth's magnetic fields blocks us from flares, this is about the heliosphere, basically the sun's field that blocks the bad stuff like radiation from outside the solar system.

You you leave the Earth's atmosphere it's very cold, when you leave the sun's protection it seems to get crazy hot.

I'm with you, I'm more inclined to believe that there is something affecting the temperature "sensors" in the same way that makes it think it's crazy hot, because I don't see how we could have built anything that could withstand those temperatures. I mean, didn't they have to build those things in suits to avoid any contamination, not like they could just spray some Lysol on it before launch and call it good.

And that's seems like a HUGE factor all these articles are just ignoring or not thinking of asking about.

Maybe tomorrow we will get an actual picture of the earths core taken by a old cellphone camera, and no one asking "how did we get this picture".

I won't link to a specific article, there are multiple with varying amount of info if you are interested, just search for Voyager 2 .

HeySkippyDog · November 25, 2019

I know we didn't have the tech then to come up with an alloy for that heat, even our space shuttle would turn into a liquid metal puddle and boil into nothing at that temperature.

That's why I tend to believe it's a range issue or damaged sensors.

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SnakeEyeSS · November 25, 2019

Well, there is a silver lining. They put those gold records on them that would tell aliens where to find us and described our anatomy.

Gold melts at 1,948F.

HeySkippyDog · November 25, 2019

If they even know what to do with them. Basically threw a message in a bottle out into space under rhe assumption that a newborn can read.

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davester · November 25, 2019

From this site: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/11/interstellar-space-weirder-than-expected-nasa-voyager-2-reveals/

"And on the other side of the boundary, the interstellar medium is at least 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hotter than expected. However, this plasma is so thin and diffuse, the average temperature around the Voyager probes remains extremely cold."

An analogy would be sand on a hot sunny day. You can step on the beach, and burn the heck out of the bottom of your feet, but if you took just a single grain of sand, same temp and it was dropped on your arm, you likely wouldn't even notice it, or get burned by it.

It sounds like there are some very hot particles floating around in space, but given that space is predominately a vacuum, there isn't enough of those particles around the spacecraft to significantly damage it.

Colossus · November 25, 2019

Isn't space cool???

SnakeEyeSS · November 26, 2019

On 11/24/2019 at 11:34 PM, davester said:

From this site: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/11/interstellar-space-weirder-than-expected-nasa-voyager-2-reveals/

"And on the other side of the boundary, the interstellar medium is at least 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hotter than expected. However, this plasma is so thin and diffuse, the average temperature around the Voyager probes remains extremely cold."

An analogy would be sand on a hot sunny day. You can step on the beach, and burn the heck out of the bottom of your feet, but if you took just a single grain of sand, same temp and it was dropped on your arm, you likely wouldn't even notice it, or get burned by it.

It sounds like there are some very hot particles floating around in space, but given that space is predominately a vacuum, there isn't enough of those particles around the spacecraft to significantly damage it.

Yeah, so how did they get that temperature then? I figure some sort of spectrography instrument which is how the measure it now, but did we have one that could fit on it in the 70s? I honestly don't know.

But, to that Nat Geo article, that is Voyager 2, but Voyager 1 WAS hit by plasma.

https://www.space.com/amp/22797-voyager-1-interstellar-space-nasa-proof.html

This is as annoying as the Orion program NASA video that leaked that said they are testing if astronauts can survive the Van Allen belt. Uh, hello, the Apollo guys made it through twice each time. (Well, most of them).

The only way around the below is that the "jolt" was from a shockwave type of reaction, but I'm giving them credit that wasn't stated.

Quote

But in April 2013 scientists remembered that Voyager I had experienced bursts of radio waves in 1983 to 1984 and in 1992 to 1993 when interstellar plasma was bombarded with a huge blast of solar material. They expected to find similar oscillations once Voyager was jolted by interstellar plasma.

On April 9, they noticed those oscillations, which likely occurred a year before due to a solar storm around St. Patrick's Day.

L86 All Terrain · November 26, 2019

7 hours ago, SnakeEyeSS said:

This is as annoying as the Orion program NASA video that leaked that said they are testing if astronauts can survive the Van Allen belt. Uh, hello, the Apollo guys made it through twice each time. (Well, most of them).

I think you just answered your own questions. Watch Capricorn One if you haven't seen it.