You do need to be in range of something to fire a probe, but the probe can be fired in any direction.
A probe fired into gravity well will be affected by that gravity, ie the probe hits the planet but can be sent up and over to hit behind or hit the inner ring from the back.
A probe fired away from a gravity well will continue on that vector until interrupted. if theres a max distance I dunno what it is.
So in some larger bodies you have to sit inside the rings and fire out. I had one that literally took 3 minutes before it hit the ring, I had actually given up.
As to WD, theoretically if you can get close enough which I dunno if you can. Would need a massive ring as wide as the Cones themselves probably to have any chance.
Could go for centre of WD until drop out, then turn around and SC and instantly try it, if out of range here its a no go as you cant get closer to the WD. No need to die just lose bit of hull. Its for science, small casualties are acceptable
