On Aug. 20, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2 spacecraft on a mission to discover the outer planets. Regardless of its title, this was the primary of the two Voyager missions NASA launched that 12 months.
Voyager 2: Sailing Among Giant Planets
Due to a uncommon alignment of the planets, NASA had the chance to ship a spacecraft on an unprecedented journey to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.Whereas Voyager 1 ended its planetary mission after Saturn, Voyager 2 completed a 12-year journey to Neptune. However they did not cease there!
Voyager 1 left the solar system and entered interstellar house in 2012, and Voyager 2 followed suit in 2018. Because it approaches 50 years of operation, the probe continues to return information from three functioning science devices.
Why it mattered
Practically half a century later, it stays the one spacecraft to go to all 4 has giants in our photo voltaic system, and the one spacecraft humanity has ever despatched previous Uranus and Neptune. A few of Voyager 2’s largest surprises got here from the moons orbiting these planets. Its photos of Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, revealed energetic geyser-like plumes blasting nitrogen miles above the floor — making it certainly one of solely three geologically energetic moons within the photo voltaic system (possibly 4, relying on what Europa Clipper finds).
Many years past its unique mission, Voyager 2 has begun finding out the Kuiper Belt atmosphere past the Solar’s protecting heliosphere, giving scientists measurements from a area no spacecraft had been designed to succeed in. Voyager 2’s plutonium energy provide drops in effectivity about 4 watts per 12 months, and NASA engineers had been recently able to reduce how much power Voyager 2 needs by switching off quite a few non-science elements to adapt a much less demanding methodology of warming the spacecraft whereas it continues touring ever farther away from the solar.
