Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 journeyed to the outer planets on their way to the edge of the Solar System and interstellar space.
Their 1977 launch took advantage of a journey-shortening alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune that will not happen again for several centuries.
Voyager 1 visited Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Both probes took detailed photographs and made other measurements of the gas giants and their moons. Their many discoveries included erupting volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io, "spokes" in Saturn's rings and wind speeds of more than 700mph (1,100km/h) on Neptune.
Photo: Voyager 2 lifts off (NASA/JPL)
Images from the Galileo and Voyager missions (launched in 1989 and 1977 respectively) showed scientists that Europa is a relatively smooth icy moon with a network of fractures that may erupt liquid water from an ocean beneath the surface.
Earth is a tiny blue dot when viewed from the edge of the Solar System.
In 1990, 13 years after leaving the Earth and at a distance of 3.7 billion miles, Voyager 1 turned around to face the Sun and captured images of most of the planets, including the Earth. Voyager scientist Carl Sagan described our planet as a "blue dot".
Despite the careful work of engineers, Voyager 2 saw only impenetrable cloud at Uranus. Uranus's moon Miranda, with its fractured surface, proved more interesting to scientists. The Voyager probes were launched in 1977.
The Voyager 2 probe, launched in 1977, flew by Triton in 1989. The moon's unexpected, miles-high nitrogen geysers proved that geologic activity is possible in the coldest outer reaches of the Solar System.
Pioneer 10 and 11 discover hazards facing the Voyager probes.
The Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft, launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively, survived the asteroid belt and Jupiter's radiation belt and magnetic field. These probes fed crucial information to scientists designing the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft.
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s. Although officially designated to study just Jupiter and Saturn, the probes were able to continue their mission into the outer solar system, and are, as of December 2011[update], on course to exit the solar system[citation needed]. These probes were built at JPL and were funded by NASA. Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth.
Both missions have gathered large amounts of data about the gas giants of the solar system, of which little was previously known. In addition, the spacecraft trajectories have been used to place limits on the existence of a hypothetical trans-Neptunian planet.
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