The 47-year-old Voyager probes are exploring interstellar space. Dwindling power could end their journey

By Ashley Strickland, CNN

(CNN) — An enduring mystique surrounds the Voyager 1 and 2 probes.

Launched two weeks apart in 1977, the twin probes changed the way we see our solar system, sending back stunningly detailed views of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus.

More than 47 years later, both spacecraft are still exploring the uncharted territory of interstellar space. And it’s not just their longevity that captivates. Voyager 1, at 15.5 billion miles away (24.9 billion kilometers), is the farthest human-made object from Earth.

It’s astonishing to think that something crafted by teams of people on our planet is so far away, carrying a golden record bearing the story of humanity in case extraterrestrial intelligence crosses its path.

But the Voyager team has become increasingly creative to keep both probes flying, and soon, the challenges may be too great to overcome.

Across the universe

Voyager 1 is back online and operating normally after a weekslong communication blackout prevented engineers from receiving its science data.

The issue resulted from the spacecraft’s dwindling power supply, which Voyager’s mission team has tried to protect by turning off nonessential systems.

Of the 10 science instruments Voyager 1 started its journey with, four are currently gathering data on its cosmic environment, and each year, the spacecraft loses more of its precious power supply.

“But these probes have lasted so much longer than anyone anticipated they would, and it’s amazing that we’re squeezing every last bit of power (and science!) out of them,” said Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Ocean secrets

Scientists were puzzled in 1987 when a group of orcas began sporting salmon “hats” and swam around for weeks with the dead fish draped over their heads off the northwestern coast of North America.

Now, a male orca has been photographed in Washington’s Puget Sound wearing a salmon on his head. But is this the return of an ’80s marine trend? Not so fast, scientists say.

Meanwhile, new video and images revealed how an orca pod devised a successful, clever strategy for hunting the world’s largest fish: the whale shark.

Fantastic creatures

Wolves are well-known predators, but they may play another surprising role: pollinators.

Biologist Claudio Sillero first noticed endangered Ethiopian wolves exhibiting the unusual behavior in the late 1980s. He watched as the wolves deliberately licked the flowers of a red hot poker plant, which grows in the highlands.

“I wasn’t quite expecting the wolves had a sweet tooth! They were clearly enjoying dessert,” said Sillero, a professor at Oxford University.

Now, after observing the wolves drink nectar for the past few decades, Sillero and his colleagues believe the wolves could be helping to pollinate the plant despite their meat-heavy diet.

Lunar update

NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts at the lunar south pole, has hit a new snag.

The agency said this week that the Artemis III mission and its historic planned lunar landing have been pushed from 2026 to mid-2027.

Meanwhile, Artemis II, designed to fly four astronauts around the moon and originally expected to lift off in September 2025, must wait until April 2026 at the earliest for launch.

The delay is partly due to issues with the Orion crew capsule’s heat shield, which was charred more than expected during the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022.

Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump announced tech billionaire and spaceflight trailblazer Jared Isaacman as his pick for NASA administrator, and it’s an unorthodox choice for many reasons.

A long time ago

The remains of an 18-month-old boy who lived 13,000 years ago in what’s now Montana have helped researchers gain insights into the diet of the ancient Clovis people, who were the ancestors of Native Americans.

The toddler was still nursing at the time of death, which enabled scientists to determine more about his mother’s diet. She largely ate the meat of woolly mammoths and other big game, suggesting the Clovis, who followed mammoth migration routes, were able to hunt the giants.

Separately, archaeologists working at a Wyoming site unearthed 32 needle fragments fashioned around the same time the young boy lived. The small tools were likely responsible for helping the Clovis, who lived toward the end of the last ice age, create game-changing, tailored garments warm enough to protect against the frigid elements.

An analysis of the animal bones used to make the needles revealed completely unexpected sources.

Explorations

These stories will spark your curiosity:

— Tiny circuit-board backpacks that send pulses through the antennae of beetles and cockroaches could turn the insects into a helpful army of search and rescue “cyborgs” at the sites of urban disasters in the future.

— A long-studied galaxy that typically resembles a sombrero looks more like an archery target in a new image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

— A view of the Milky Way over the Egyptian desert and a striking aerial image of blacktip reef sharks hunting schools of fish in the Maldives are two of the winners of the 2024 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition.

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