Just last hebdomad , Voyager 2 became NASA ’s long operating space vehicle , and today , the mighty guile celebrates its 35th anniversary . What a long way it has travelled !
Voyager 2 launched on August 20th , 1977 , 16 sidereal day before its matching Voyager 1 take off . ( Yes , we recognize that ’s confusing . ) Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 are 9 billion and 11 billion statute mile from the sunlight , severally , place them at the outermost reach of the sun ’s heliosphere . As the probe go out the sun ’s eggshell and enter interstellar space , scientist will take in fresh insights as to what lie beyond our solar organisation . In particular , scientist forecast that the direction of the magnetised athletic field will change on the other side .
But if today ’s Voyager commission are all about going the space , the earliest expeditions discovered oceans of interesting entropy about major planet within our solar organization . accord to NASA ’s history :
Notable discovery by Voyager 2 include the get hexagonal jet stream in Saturn ’s north glacial region , the tumble magnetic poles of Uranus and Neptune , and the geyser on Neptune ’s frozen moon Triton . Although set in motion secondly , Voyager 1 reached Jupiter and Saturn before Voyager 2 , first run across the volcanoes of Jupiter ’s moon Io , the kinky nature of Saturn ’s outmost main tintinnabulation , and the bass , blurred atmosphere of Saturn ’s moonlight Titan . Voyager 1 also take the mission ’s last trope : the far-famed solar system family portrait that showed our Earth as a pale down dot .
How many technologies built 35 years ago are still take to the woods ? Hardly a one . NASA estimates the two probe should have enough electric power to carry until 2020 and possibly until 2025 . Godspeed ! [ NASAviaThe Atlantic ]
figure via NASA / JPL
NASATechversaryVoyager 2
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