
Revisiting Voyager 2 data, a new finding about Uranus's magnetic environment - pseudolus
https://phys.org/news/2020-03-revisiting-decades-old-voyager-scientists-secret.html
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andrewflnr
> they zoomed in closer than previous studies, plotting a new datapoint every
> 1.92 seconds.

Is the original data stored in analog somehow? Was it transmitted to Earth
analog? I'm curious how they get to pick their own sample rate.

~~~
stormbrew
I would have thought that being built in the 70s, data transmission from the
voyagers would still be analog, but apparently not. According to the press kit
for the voyager[1] missions, all data was sent digital and there's details on
what was sent at what data rate.

So it seems like they must have previously just sampled the data differently.
Maybe specifically because they weren't looking for this particular kind of
phenomena, so a higher sample rate wasn't seen as necessary?

[1]
[https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/197700...](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19770079866.pdf)

~~~
scottlocklin
Voyager used one of the most beautiful error correcting codes; the Golay
codes.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_Golay_code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_Golay_code)

Also best 1 page paper ever (<tm> Elwyn Berlekamp):

[https://www.lama.univ-
savoie.fr/pagesmembres/hyvernat/Enseig...](https://www.lama.univ-
savoie.fr/pagesmembres/hyvernat/Enseignement/1718/info607/TP-
Golay/golay_paper.pdf)

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rkagerer
Reporters are having a field day writing headlines:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=Uranus&tbm=nws](https://www.google.com/search?q=Uranus&tbm=nws)

I submitted a link from the New York Times a few hours before this one that
went "Uranus Ejected a Giant Plasma Bubble During Voyager 2’s Visit"

