It’s tough but possible - Juno, currently in orbit around Jupiter, is solar powered.
Note that Juno has special high efficiency triple-junction solar cells. They have a 28% efficiency, which is much better than what you can buy on the market. And the panels are roughly the cross section of a school bus in size. So it’s pushing the limit for solar powered spacecraft. Until we get even better solar cell technology, that is.
Although not true in the strictest sense – there is very weak gravitational binding of the Sun and the Oort cloud – I view the local neighborhood as a bowl of meatball soup with the star systems as the meatballs and the Oort cloud as the soup. Of course, it’s mighty poor soup, isolated meatballs suspended in a weak broth.
I just wanna say I love the post/sig combination on this one.
I don’t have anything to add - except thanks for introducing me to the term “trans-neptunian panic zone”. I don’t know why - but I feel that I’m better for knowing that.
Bumped.
Voyager 1 has detected that the deep space hums.
I hope they call it the Glen Gould Effect.
Ground lead came loose from the turntable sent along to play the golden record…
My first thought too.
Originating in Taos, New Mexico. Who’da thunk Voyager would hear it all the way out there.
Bumped.
The latest Voyager news:
Maybe Voyager 1 entered a region of space where the laws of physics are different.