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Science
Marianne Guenot
Updated
- Nearly 46 years after their launch, Voyager 1 and 2 will likely soon reach the end of their scientific mission.
- NASA recently lost contact with Voyager 2 after sending it a bad command by mistake.
- Here are 18 pictures the probes took over the course of their forty-plus-year journey.
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The Voyager probes are pioneers of science, making it farther into space than any other manufactured object. But now, they face a terminal problem: their power is running out.
The twin probes were originally sent on a four-year mission to tour the solar system, but they exceeded all expectations and are still going nearly 46 years later. That makes them NASA's longest-lived mission.
Scientists are now doing their best tokeep the probes goingfor as long as possible. They recently found a clever hack to extend Voyager 2's life for another three years and plan to do the same with Voyager 1.
But these are old machines and NASA is constantly scrambling to fix mistakes. Last year, Voyager 1 started sending garbled data from the outside of the solar system. NASA ultimately figured out one of its computers had gone dead.
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Voyager 2 is now in limbo, as the agency revealed Friday it had lost contact with the probe when someone sent a wrong command. It could be the end of Voyager 2's mission if NASA can't fix the mistake, which the agency probably won't be able to do before October.
As the probes are nearing the end of their scientific mission, here are 18 images from Voyager that changed science.
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The Voyager probes were designed to visit Jupiter and Saturn.
The Voyager mission included two probes — Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 — which NASA launched in 1977 within a few months of each other.
NASA took advantage of a rare planet alignment to turbocharge their journeys into space.
NASA originally built the probes to last five years, but they have exceeded that lifespan many times.
As of August 20 and September 5, 2023, Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 will have been traveling for 46 years, respectively.
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This is what Voyager 1 saw on its approach to Jupiter.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 reached Jupiter in 1979.
As they flew by the planet, they took about 50,000 pictures of Jupiter. These blew away scientists, as the quality of the pictures was much better than those taken from Earth, according to NASA.
These snapstaught scientists important facts about the planet's atmosphere, magnetic forces, and geology that would have been difficult to decipher otherwise.
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The probes discovered two new moons orbiting Jupiter: Thebe and Metis.
They also spotted a thin ring around Jupiter.
The probe captured this picture as it was looking back at the planet backlit by the Sun.
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Voyager 1 discovered volcanoes at the surface of Io, one of Jupiter's moons.
Next stop: Saturn.
In 1980 and 1981, the probes reached Saturn. The flyby gave scientists unprecedented insight into the planet's ring structure, atmosphere, and moons.
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Voyager snapped Saturn's rings in more detail than ever before.
And showed every secret that Enceladus, Saturn's moon, had to offer.
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Saturn, snapped as the probe flew away, was shown in a new light.
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By 1986, Voyager 2 had made it to Uranus.
By 1986, Voyager 1 has finished its grand tour of the solar system, and few out towards space. But Voyager 2 kept on its exploring our nearest planets, passing 50,600 miles away from Uranus in January 1986.
Voyager 2 discovered two extra rings around Uranus, revealing the planet had at least 11, not 9.
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Voyager 2 also spotted 11 previously unseen moons around Uranus.
Here is a picture of Miranda, Uranus's sixth-biggest moon.
Voyager 2 was the first spacecraft to observe Neptune from a close distance.
In 1989, 12 years after its launch, Voyager 2 passed within 3,000 miles of Neptune.
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Here's Nepture taken by Voyager 2, in all its blue glory.
Voyager 2 took this unflattering pic of Triton's rough face.
It captured Triton, Neptune's moon in unprecedented detail.
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And snapped Triton's southern hemisphere.
As it flew by, Voyager 2 uncovered Neptune's rings.
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As its parting gift, Voyager 2 took this beautiful picture of light grazing Neptune's south pole.
This is Voyager 2's last picture. Since it wouldn't come across another planet on its ongoing journey, NASA switched off its cameras after its flyby of Neptune to conserve energy for other instruments.
Voyager 1 had one last trick up its sleeve.
As its last photographic hurrah in 1990, Voyager 1 took 60 images of the solar system from 4 billion miles away.
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It gave us the Earth's longest selfie, dubbed the "pale blue dot."
This remains the longest-range selfie: a portrait of the Earth taken by a human-made probe from 4 billion miles away.
After this picture, NASA switched off Voyager 1's cameras to save energy. NASA could switch the probes' cameras back on, but it is not a priority for the mission.
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Beyond the solar system
Though the probes are no longer sending pictures, they haven't stopped sending crucial information about space.
In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first human-made instrument to cross into interstellar space by crossing the boundary between our solar system and the rest of the universe, called the heliopause.
Voyager 2 was second, crossing that threshold in 2018. The probe revealed that there was yet anotherlayer outside of our heliosphere.
The probes keep sending back measurements from interstellar space, like weird hums likely coming from vibrations made by neighboring stars.
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Even after their instruments are switched off, the probes' mission continues.
NASA is planning to switch more of the probes' instruments in the hope of extending their life to the 2030s.
But even after all their instruments become quiet, their mission will carry on. As they drift off, they will still be carrying a golden record that carries crucial information about humanity. If intelligent extraterrestrial life exists, they could use that information to reach out to us.
This article was originally published on June 6, 2022, and is being updated with the latest developments about Voyager 1 and 2.
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