Why did Voyager 1 fly so far and not be destroyed by an asteroid? How does it work?

The activity of asteroids is regular, and the asteroids that are closer to the earth are avoided by calculation, so they will naturally not collide and will always move towards the outer solar system.

This is because the density of celestial bodies in space is relatively low, and before the traveler discovers it, it has set its orbit strictly, so the probability of hitting an asteroid is relatively small; It is in accordance with the orbit set for him by scientists, and it runs on its own, according to Newton's first law of motion, in one direction, forever flying in a straight line.

Because most of the asteroids are in regular activity, and the universe is very large; It moves according to the previously set trajectory of action.

The Voyager 1 probe, which has been flying in the solar system at very high speeds for more than 40 years, how did it not hit an asteroid? How does it work? Will it dodge asteroids?

Pictured: The Voyager 1 probe.

We often see some plots like this in some science fiction movies. The spacecraft is hit by an asteroid in flight, causing a series of accidents. It's like a ship sailing in the dark sea that has run aground.

There are two asteroid clusters in the solar system, one is the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter; One is the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. The first planet to be explored by the Voyager 1 probe from Earth was Jupiter. The asteroid belt is where it must pass.

How did it cross the asteroid belt?

Pictured: An asteroid in an asteroid belt.

How did Voyager 1 pass through the asteroid belt? Don't think too much about it, it's just "straight through". In fact, the asteroid belt is not as we imagined, full of rampage asteroids. It's very empty.

How empty is the asteroid belt? The asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter, about an astronomical unit from the Sun. 1 astronomical unit is equal to 100 million kilometers.

That is, the width of the asteroid belt is approximately astronomical units, i.e., about 100 million kilometers. In this way, we can think of the asteroid belt as a ring with an area of 6 billion square kilometers.

How many asteroids are there in the asteroid belt? So far, scientists have discovered about 120,000 asteroids in the asteroid belt. It is estimated that there may be more than 500,000 asteroids in the asteroid belt.

In this way, on average, there are only asteroids per 100 million square kilometers of asteroid belt.

Pictured: Asteroid belt.

As a result, the material in the asteroid belt is very thin. There is a very empty distance between asteroids and asteroids. In fact, it was not only the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes that passed through the asteroid belt safely, but also the Galileo Jupiter probe, the Juno probe Jupiter, the Cassini Saturn probe, and the New Horizons probe all passed through the asteroid belt safely.

After Voyager 1 arrived at Saturn, scientists discovered that Saturn's moon Titan has a thick atmosphere. So, the scientists decided to send Voyager 1 closer to Titan. This proximity didn't matter, as Voyager 1 was subjected to an additional gravitational pull that caused it to deviate from its original flight path.

Illustration: Voyager 1 flight path (blue arrow).

We found that the eight planets in the solar system, the asteroid belt, and the Kuiper belt behind them are basically on the same plane. Voyager 1 originally flew along the orbital plane of the eight planets. After visiting Titan, its course deviated.

In this way, Voyager 1 will not be able to reach Uranus and Neptune on the subsequent flights. It will also not pass through the Kuiper Belt, where another asteroid in the solar system is dense.

This makes it even less likely that the Voyager 1 probe will hit an asteroid in interstellar space. So it's quite normal that Voyager 1 flew so far and wasn't destroyed by an asteroid. What do you think about this?

Forty-three years later, NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still flying in space, with the former 22.2 billion kilometers from Earth and a speed of 17 kilometers relative to the Sun in seconds; The latter is 18.5 billion kilometers from the Earth and has a velocity of kilometers and seconds relative to the Sun.

After all these years, why are the two Voyager spaceships still flying? They are powered by **? Won't they crash into asteroids in space?

In fact, the Voyager spacecraft have long since run out of fuel, and they are now flying in space unpowered. And the sun's gravitational pull is no longer able to draw them back, and the orbits of the two spacecraft are open hyperbolas, and they will fly by inertia to distant interstellar space. So why can the unpowered Voyagers 1 and 2 still fly out of the solar system?

On this issue, it is necessary to involve the third cosmic velocity. According to calculations, spaceships departing from the Earth can fly out of the solar system by inertia as long as their initial velocity accelerates to kilometers and seconds (relative to the Earth), which is the third cosmic velocity.

In different locations of the solar system, the gravitational pull of the sun is different, so the corresponding solar system escape velocity is also different. The closer you get to the Sun, the stronger the gravitational pull of the Sun, and the higher the corresponding escape velocity of the solar system, and vice versa.

When Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 left Earth, the rocket did not have the ability to accelerate them to the third cosmic velocity, but only allowed them to reach the second cosmic velocity, allowing them to break free from the Earth's gravitational pull and fly to the outer solar system of the Earth's orbit. The Voyager spacecraft was finally able to fly out of the solar system thanks to the gravitational acceleration of the four giant planets.

The Voyager encountered a once-in-a-century celestial phenomenon. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, these four giant planets are arranged in a very special way, they move to the same side of the sun, and Voyager can theoretically fly over four planets at once.

Under the strong gravitational acceleration of several giant planets, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 exceeded the escape velocity of the solar system at their respective locations. Therefore, although they have run out of fuel for acceleration, they can still leave the solar system.

Why did Voyager fly for decades without hitting an asteroid in space?

In the solar system, there is an asteroid belt between Mars and Saturn, where there are at least 1.1 million asteroids larger than 1 kilometer in diameter, and even more asteroids with smaller sizes. Despite this, Voyager did not collide with the asteroids in the asteroid belt as it passed through the asteroid belt, because space is extremely empty. Coupled with the fact that both the asteroid and the Voyager are small and have a weak gravitational pull, the likelihood of the Voyager colliding with the asteroid is extremely low.

As long as it avoids head-on collisions with several major planets, Voyager will be able to fly safely in space. In the future, when Voyager enters the vastness of interstellar space, it is more likely that they will not collide with objects in space, and the two unmanned spacecraft will orbit the center of the galaxy like the sun.

1. Voyager 1 has only passed through the asteroid belt once, and will not pass a second time.

2. It does not hit the asteroid belt, but passes by, or passes.

You should be talking about "Why didn't Voyager 1 hit an asteroid as it passed through the asteroid belt?" ”

The asteroid belt is a dense area of asteroids within the solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids are small bodies made of rock or metal that orbit the Sun, and because this is the densest area of asteroids in comparison, estimated to be as many as 500,000, this area is called the asteroid belt.

At first glance, the number of asteroids in the asteroid belt is very large, but in reality, the average density of asteroids is still extremely low, although they are concentrated in the asteroid belt. The width of the asteroid belt is close to 2 astronomical units, or nearly 300 million kilometers. This distance is nearly twice the distance between the Sun and the Earth, and with 500,000 (or more) small bodies spread over such a large area, each asteroid is on average more than 100,000 kilometers away from other asteroids, it would be very difficult to even have them collide intentionally.

Voyager 1 crashed into an asteroid while passing through the asteroid belt, which is many times less likely than a small boat in the ocean that is going straight and hits a small fish with its bow.

It is believed that scientists may have planned a fixed flight path for Voyager 1 when it launched, after all, it is still within the signal control range of the Earth. On this basis, scientists can control Voyager 1 to avoid colliding with them at any time by monitoring the asteroid's position.

It's because Voyager is slow and far from the asteroid belt.

In fact, the distance between the celestial bodies is greater than we think, the distance between the Earth and the Moon alone is 380,000 kilometers, and the Voyager 1 is not very large, and the possibility of being hit is relatively small.

Isn't it stupid. Do you think space is as crowded as you see? To hit an asteroid. It's as hard as a mosquito colliding with another mosquito in Earth's orbit.

Because I haven't flown to the place yet, I'm still some distance from there.

He has his own track, so it doesn't crash.

It doesn't hit the asteroid belt, it passes by, or passes.

Because they all have their own specific trajectory.

It may have been approaching, but it didn't happen.

The universe is very large, not so easy.

I've definitely encountered it, but it's just a passing by.

This question should be asked to astronauts.