Voyager 1

[Slim]

I was getting quite annoyed listening to 5 Live's Drive programme while out on a bike yesterday. The two presenters were chattering between themselves and asking if was near the edge of the galaxy? or perhaps the universe? And throughout the programme when the subject came up the rhetoric was that it was "out there in the universe" and so on.

But as Picnic points out, it's still very close to Earth in cosmological terms. If you imagine our planet to be the monument at Charing Cross Station and the edge of the galaxy to be the nearest part of the M25, it's travelled about 2mm.

[Slim]

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/voyager-1-spacecraft-phones-home-with-transmitter-that-hasnt-been-used-since-1981

A radio transmitter that's been a backup for decades has helped reestablish communication with Voyager 1 after NASA lost touch for days. The blackout began on Oct. 19, CNN reports. The team suspects the fault protection system was triggered, causing the system to turn off the X-band transmitter and move communication to the older, weaker S-band transmitter that uses less power. "Voyager 1 had not used it to communicate with Earth since 1981," NASA said.

NASA won't try to turn the main transmitter back on until the cause of the switch is determined, which could take weeks.

[dom]

I was getting quite annoyed listening to 5 Live's Drive programme while out on a bike yesterday. The two presenters were chattering between themselves and asking if was near the edge of the galaxy? or perhaps the universe? And throughout the programme when the subject came up the rhetoric was that it was "out there in the universe" and so on.

But as Picnic points out, it's still very close to Earth in cosmological terms. If you imagine our planet to be the monument at Charing Cross Station and the edge of the galaxy to be the nearest part of the M25, it's travelled about 2mm.

Just read that, such uninformed reporters there. Even a primary school child with a passing interest in the Universe would have some idea of the huge scale of it.

(Sorry for the delayed response)