Archive – NASA Pioneer 10 space probe – NASA – Archive
MADRID, June 13. (EUROPA PRESS) –
This June 13 marks 41 years since the NASA Pioneer 10 space probe crossed the orbit of Neptune, thus becoming the first human object to pass the planets of the Sun.
At that time, 1983, Neptune was the most distant planet from the Sun. given the eccentricity of Pluto’s orbit, which until 2006 was still considered a planet.
Launched on March 2, 1972, the passage by Jupiter on December 3, 1973 provided the best images to date of the planet’s atmosphere, allowing information to be obtained on the temperature of the atmosphere and the height at which the planets are located. Jupiter’s upper clouds. He also studied the planet’s radiation belts and its strong magnetic field, much higher in intensity than expected.
The Pioneer 10 spacecraft is also famous for the fact that contains a plaque inscribed with a symbolic message which informs the extraterrestrial civilization that could intercept the probe about the human being and its place of origin, Earth, a kind of interstellar “message in a bottle.” This plate was made of gold anodized aluminum, because this element has certain properties that cause it to degrade minimally, Wikipedia reports.
ON January 23, 2003, the last weak signal from the probe was receivedwhich is currently on a long route to the star Aldebaran.
