Soot is formed from aggregations of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which are abundant in space
An interview with one of the earliest scientists working on the project:
The Voyagers are powered by heat from decaying plutonium, which is converted into electricity. Each year, the aging spacecraft lose about 4 watts of power. In an effort to conserve power, the mission team has turned off any systems that were deemed unnecessary, including a few science instruments. Each Voyager spacecraft began with 10 instruments, but now have just three each. The two spacecraft now have enough power to operate for another year or so before engineers are forced to turn off two more instruments.
Some surprising news:
NASA has revived a set of thrusters on the nearly 50-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft after declaring them inoperable over two decades ago…
JPL reported Wednesday that the maneuver, completed in March, restarted Voyager 1’s primary roll thrusters, which are used to keep the spacecraft aligned with a tracking star. That guide star helps keep its high-gain antenna aimed at Earth, now over 15.6 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) away, and far beyond the reach of any telescope. Those primary roll thrusters stopped working in 2004 after a pair of internal heaters lost power. Voyager engineers long believed they were broken and unfixable. The backup roll thrusters in use are now at risk due to residue buildup in their fuel lines, which could cause failure as early as this fall. Without roll thrusters, Voyager 1 would lose its ability to stay properly oriented and eventually drift out of contact.
Boy, they really built them to last in those days!
I’m really rooting for that little V-Ger!