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Voyager 2 Turns 45, Let's Take This Occasion To Celebrate Space Exploration

Yes, it is still alive and it still sending signals back to Earth, even though it is about 12.1 billion miles away (19.5 billion kilometers). Voyager 2 is the first of its kind to be launched, but Voyager 1 was supposed to be the first to reach Jupiter and Saturn.
Voyager Poster 16 photos
Photo: NASA/JPL CALTECH
True Color(left) and False Color(right) of UranusNeptune's Great Dark SpotShot of Uranus as Voyager 2 DepartsHigh-altitude Cloud of NeptuneWide View of Saturn's RingsVoyager Mission TimelineJupiter and Two MoonsJupiter's Great Red SpotNeptune's RingsSolar System Portrait Shows Earth as a "Blue Pale Dot"Voyager 2 in Launch VehicleVoyager 2 EncapsulationSaturn by Votager 2Voyager Image of NeptuneImage of Voyager
The project began in the summer of 1965 when a calculation made it possible to launch a spacecraft in the 1970s. It was meant to be the first space probe to visit all the four giant planets in our Solar System up close. This was achieved using the gravity of each planet to swing to the next one, due to an alignment of planets happening once every 176 years.

Both the Voyagers contain a “Golden Record”, which is a disk with a collection of 55 languages, human-made and natural sounds, and 117 images of us and our planet. On the top of the disk, there are instructions drawn on how to play the record if it will ever meet someone to play it.

Voyager 2 was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and it initially visited Jupiter on July 9, 1979. It took the first-ever close-up images of Jupiter’s ring system and discovered a new moon, called Adrastea. Saturn would follow on August 25, 1981, when the probe would encounter a few of its icy moons, such as Tethys, and Iapetus.

The third stop was Uranus, on January 24, 1986. Here, our brave space explorer discovered an amazing number of new moons, 11 to be precise. It was also revealed that Uranus too, has rings, albeit much darker and thinner. Voyager 2 then passed not far from Neptune, where it discovered six new moons and began its adventure past our Solar System, leaving it behind on November 8, 2018.

The space probe does not send any more images, due to the camera being shut down by the engineers. This was done to preserve power and computer memory since it will never again fly close enough to any astronomical object. Somewhere in the mid-late 2020s, the scientific instruments will be turned off and the Voyager will be going alone and silent towards the end of its journey.

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About the author: Angela Balaciu
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Angela has always been attracted to the artsy and quirky sides of the world. When she discovered the automotive world is filled with all kinds of wonders, a new passion was born.
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