At the end of the last century, with the help of science and technology, mankind finally walked out of the earth and saw the vast starry sky beyond the earth. Standing on the earth and watching the starry sky is completely different from standing outside the earth and watching the starry sky.
Standing on the earth and looking at the starry sky, we cannot feel the vastness of the universe and the smallness of the earth. But after walking out of the earth, we really felt the insignificance of the universe and the earth. Standing outside the earth, our first field of vision is the solar system, which is the mother star system where the earth is located and the home of mankind.
If we want to get out of the solar system and explore the outer starry sky in the future, we must first have a sufficient understanding of the solar system. The solar system can be divided into inner galaxies and outer galaxies. The inner galaxies are relatively close to us. After human beings walked out of the earth, the first to explore are the inner galaxies, such as the moon, Venus and Mars.
Compared with the inner galaxy, the outer solar system is the most fascinating place for scientists. It is a blind spot for human exploration. If we want to know more about the outer solar system, especially the edge of the solar system, we need a probe at close range. Observation.
In the last century, the great scientist Tesla once made a conjecture about the edge of the solar system: there is a powerful “energy shield” that protects the solar system. So does this energy shield really exist? Since there is our blind spot for exploration, astronomical telescopes cannot observe at all. To explore the mystery of the edge of the solar system, we can only send interstellar probes.
So in 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 successively. Although these two probes went out of the earth in the same year, their focus is different. The mission of Voyager 1 is relatively simple, that is, it has been moving towards the outside of the solar system forever, while Voyager 2 has more missions, requiring preliminary exploration of each planet on the way forward.
Therefore, Voyager 1 reached the edge of the solar system and crossed the heliosphere early, while Voyager 2 was much behind No. 1. For scientists, Voyager 2 is more important, and it can bring us back more. The data on the outer solar system and the edge of the solar system allows us to know more about the edge of the solar system. It can be said that Voyager 2 has made a greater contribution to mankind.
After Voyager 2 set off in 1977, it visited the four planets of the outer solar system-Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. After the gravitational acceleration of these large planets, it has obtained an escape velocity that can escape the gravitational force of the sun. After 41 years of voyage, I finally reached the edge of the solar system, preparing for crossing the heliosphere.
I believe that many of my friends have also heard of the heliosphere or heliosphere, so what is the heliosphere? In fact, it is an area where the solar wind contacts the galaxy medium. We all know that the sun will continue to emit strong electromagnetic activity, continuously releasing a stream of high-energy particles to the surrounding, this is the so-called solar wind.
The solar wind is a stream of high-energy particles. It starts from the sun and spreads in all directions in the solar system until it encounters the medium from the interstellar space. When the solar wind meets the interstellar medium, there will be a violent collision reaction, thus forming a huge heliosphere. This heliosphere surrounds the solar system. It is the “energy shield” predicted by Tesla in the last century. What scientists call the heliosphere can also be called the heliosphere.
Voyager 2 carries the Dingguo analyzer, which can better detect the state of plasma in the deep solar system. Although scientists know through theoretical research that the solar wind and the interstellar medium will produce a heliosphere, we do not know the data of this heliosphere at all.
When Voyager 2 reaches the edge of the solar system and crosses the heliosphere, it can collect the data of the heliosphere and send it back to the earth. So how exactly does the solar wind reach the interstellar space? Voyager 2 brought us back the answer. It turns out that the top of the solar wind is not directly connected to the interstellar space, but there is a hot interstellar plasma wall in between.
The temperature of this “fire wall” is at least 30,000 degrees, and the highest may reach 50,000 degrees, and its width has reached 220 million kilometers. This distance is equivalent to 1.5 times the distance between the sun and the earth. Some people might say that if the Voyager 2 enters with such a high temperature and such a thick “fire wall”, wouldn’t it be directly oxidized?
If you think so, you are wrong. Higher temperature does not mean higher heat. We all know that the essence of temperature is the violent degree of thermal motion of particles. The more violent the thermal motion of particles, the larger the average animal, the higher the temperature. However, if the high temperature wants to emit a large amount in the form of mass, it needs the density of the particles.
The greater the number of particles in the unit space, the more heat generated by the temperature. If there are very few particles in the unit space, even if the thermal motion of the particles generates a high temperature, they cannot release a lot of heat. High temperature effects on the materials in the space.
I believe many of my friends also know that humans can currently produce temperatures as high as 500 million degrees Celsius. This temperature is achieved through particle colliders. But such a high temperature cannot cause damage to the collider. The reason is that there are only a few particles in the collider for collision reactions. Although there are hundreds of millions of temperatures, no heat is released.
This “fire wall” at the edge of the solar system is the same. Although the solar wind collides with the interstellar medium to create this “fire wall” of tens of thousands of degrees, the plasma in the “fire wall” is extremely thin, and the heat in it is not high. Voyager 2 receives very little heat, and can safely walk through the “Wall of Fire” and get out of the “Wall of Fire” smoothly.
The process of Voyager 2 reaching the edge of the solar system and crossing the “wall of fire” has sent us a large amount of data. These data help us understand more about the contact and collision of high-energy particles of the sun and the interstellar medium, and also give us a sense of the solar system. Learn more about the edge.
After Voyager 2 crossed the “Wall of Fire”, it also meant that it went out of the heliosphere and entered the interstellar space. Of course, entering the interstellar space does not mean leaving the solar system. In a broad sense, the solar system is very large. It is bounded by the Oort Cloud and has a diameter of 2 light years.
At the speed of Voyager 2, it will take about 19,600 years to get out of the Oort Cloud. Such a long time has basically been announced: Voyager 2 will eventually be unable to get out of the solar system. Some people may not understand: Voyager 2 already has a relatively high inertial velocity. As long as it does not collide with celestial bodies, it can go on forever. It will leave the solar system in 19,600 years and enter the outer space. Why does it go? Not out of the solar system?
At this point, we will mention Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, both of which have the same mission, which is to find extraterrestrial civilization. In order to explore extraterrestrial civilization, scientists put a golden record on Voyager, which recorded human information and the coordinates of the earth. As long as they are captured by alien civilizations after they leave the solar system, the existence of the earth and humans will be known to the alien civilizations and come into contact with humans in the solar system.
But let us not forget that alien civilizations may not be friendly. Hawking has issued warnings on many occasions: Don’t take the initiative to contact alien civilizations, otherwise humans will be very dangerous. As humans’ awareness of the universe continues to improve, they are increasingly worried that Voyager will bring huge dangers to humans in the future. Therefore, when humans’ scientific and technological prowess further advances, they will probably catch up with Voyager 1 and Voyager Number 2, and then recycle them.