Voyager 1 has kept in touch for 40 years.

Discover reports on a dedicated little space probe that’s still writing home to NASA (using 11 vital instruments) after four decades of hurtling away from home:

6. Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument
SHUTDOWN DATE: Still active

PURPOSE: Measure ions and their distribution in the outer solar system.

KEY FINDING: A violent burst of solar activity in 1993, coupled with the Low-Energy Charged Particle Instrument, helped researchers locate the heliopause (the boundary between the Sun’s solar wind and the interstellar medium).

10. Planetary Radio Astronomy and Plasma Wave Antenna
SHUTDOWN DATE: 2008

PURPOSE: Measure radio emissions from the gas giants.

KEY FINDING: It measured radio waves from Jupiter and Saturn, resulting in a creepy album called Voyager: Sound of the Cosmos which makes Jupiter sound like even more of a monster.


There’s nine more at the link.