Voyager spacecraft are now in an area known as the heliosheath at the outer limits of our sun’s influence, carrying 11 scientific instruments with them for planet observations such as cameras and spectrometers. These travelers have already explored many of the outer planets, leaving behind Golden Records with each one to send a message from…
NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft were first launched separately weeks apart in 1977, never imagined they would remain flying and continue collecting valuable data even with some instruments turned off to conserve power. Yet these “elder citizens” continue collecting invaluable information even today! They embarked on an epic tour of the outer planets, discovering…
Voyager 2’s cameras captured images and sensors gathered data as it passed over Neptune’s cold blue clouds tonight as part of its final journey across our Solar System. Neptune boasts 14 moons, such as Triton. Geysers of nitrogen erupt from its surface indicating that Triton may have originated as a free-roaming dwarf planet. Voyager 2…
Voyager spacecraft are our greatest ambassadors into space. Now exploring beyond our solar system’s boundaries, both probes have enough fuel left over to continue transmitting scientific information until 2025. The Voyagers were designed to take advantage of an unlikely alignment among outer planets that enabled them to study two, four and eventually all their unique…
Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, originally intended to explore the outer planets of our solar system, have now entered interstellar space. There, they will remain for thousands of years before returning home. NASA prepared two Golden Records that contain music and greetings in 55 languages to reassure any alien civilization they might come across. The…
Both Voyager spacecraft are outfitted with 10 science instruments, including two cameras capable of taking detailed images of planets and their rings, magnetic fields and the interaction between light as a wave and particles. Voyager 1 returned a haunting portrait of Earth in 1990 that Carl Sagan called “Pale Blue Dot.” Since then, its data…
