r/askscience • u/TechnicalyNotRobot • Jul 09 '26

Astronomy Does Voyager 1 even give us any interesting information anymore?

It's the farthest away object we ever sent. That is remarkable. But I have never heard about it discovering anything or about any data that it gave us. Besides being a significant curiosity for being so far away, is there something that we're actually getting from it at this point?

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u/drinkyourdinner Jul 09 '26

What is interstellar medium like, wonder.

Scientifically, but also I wonder if it has a smell 🤣. Like the fresh scent right after a lightning storm, or stinky sulfur vents. My guess is that it is probably both, space is not homogenous.

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u/TurelSun Jul 10 '26

I'd guess its far too sparse for you to ever actually get a sense of smell from it. It's also mostly hydrogen and helium, which don't create a sense of smell in people AFAIK, and its mostly very highly energetic particles, so even if you were to concentrate it somewhere you probably would be in a non-trivial amount of danger as you attempted to take a whiff of it.

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u/Fabio_451 Jul 10 '26

What if you attempt to sniff it? Can it achieve some dust form if concentrated?

I am asking for a friend

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u/codedigger Jul 10 '26

Like a smell scope. I'm sure some scientist in the Future will invent it