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NASA figured out how to keep its 48-year-old Voyager 2 probe running for yet another year
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Click for next articleNASA just made an interstellar tweak to the Voyager 2 spacecraft, known as the "Big Bang", to keep its remaining 50-year-old science instruments running a little longer.
But the supply of plutonium on each probe drops at about four watts a year on each spacecraft.
Each spacecraft initially launched with 10 instruments, and Voyager 2 is now down to only three instruments .
(Voyager 2 is at about 142 astronomical units or sun-Earth distances, while Voyager 1 is nearing 171 AU.)
Each Voyager spacecraft first flew past Jupiter and Saturn, taking unprecedented imagery of the planets and their moons .