I must admit, this news about #Uranus and #Neptune has me shook:
"A fresh analysis of Voyager 2's images show both ice giants are in fact a similar shade of greenish blue, which is the 'most accurate representation yet' of the planets' colors, the new study finds."
We are celebrating Christmas at partner's parents with the same raclette grill as 20 years ago - which is pretty impressive, but not quiet as much as the Voyager spacecrafts 😅 Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977 - still working, still teaching us new things about the most external parts of the solar system.
With many thanks to @schnedan for the idea to draw Voyager :)
New image of Uranus taken by the JWST shows its north polar cap, its exquisite rings and 14 of its moons.
The image was taken by the NIRCam camera on Sep 4, 2023 at IR wavelengths 1.4, 2.1, 3.0 and 4.6 µm. This 566x409 image is part of a larger field-of-view image.
Uranus' axis is tilted by 98°. With an orbital period of 84 years, each pole faces the Sun (and Earth) for 42 years! During the years around the solstices, we can see its rings almost face on.
Images of Uranus taken by the venerable Voyager 2 spacecraft on Jan 24/25 1986.
The fully lit image was taken on Jan 24, 1986 during approach. The pale blue-green color results from red-light-absorbing methane in Uranus' atmosphere.
The crescent image was taken from 1 million km beyond Uranus, as Voyager 2 raced away from the planet on its way to Neptune and beyond.
The image of the back-lit rings was taken about 3.5 hours after closest approach.
I got off work early today so I'm in my office watching Star Trek Voyager, I recently got the DVD set and am starting from the beginning. I'm on episode 5. The new cat Chevy has joined me, he's sitting on the chair behind me. His former human was a huge Star Trek fan so this makes me happy. #StarTrek#Voyager#CatsOfMastodon
The venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft is experiencing another glitch. Instead of sending science and engg. data, it is sending a 0101 bit pattern.
The problem has been narrowed down to the flight data system (FDS), which is not communicating properly with the telecom unit (TMU). A reboot did not help.
Stay tuned as NASA engrs work out a fix for this 1970's era computer, which has performed magnificently during its long 46-year journey to the planets and to outer space. https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/
1/n
NASA did not provide a date but it looks like this issue was discovered and acted upon on Dec 7 or 8.
The graphic below shows the schedule for Voyager 1 comms via DSN, generated on Dec 7. Normally, the downlink rate is 160 bps. On Dec 8, it was switched to 40 bps. And again on Dec 10. Some special commands for the FDS were also sent.
Since then, the D/L rate has been switched between 160 bps and 40 bps a few times with additional FDS commands uploaded.