Science • Tech & Space Voyager 1 and 2: The Interstellar Mission


ject had ever attempted a jour- ney like that before. The two spacecraft took tens


of thousands of pictures of Jupiter and Saturn and their moons. The pictures from Voyager 1 and 2 allowed us to see lots of things for the first time. For example, they cap- tured detailed photos of Jupi- ter’s clouds and storms, and the structure of Saturn’s rings. Image of storms on Jupiter


taken by the Voyager 1 space- craft. Image credit: NASA Voyager 1 and 2 also dis-


Image of storms on Jupiter taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Image credit: NASA


NASA.GOV, USA. ~ The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft launched from Earth in 1977. Their mission was to explore


Jupiter and Saturn—and be- yond to the outer planets of our solar system. This was a big task. No human-made ob-


covered active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io, and much more. Voyager 2 also took pic- tures of Uranus and Neptune. Together, the Voyager mis- sions discov- ered 22 moons. Since


then,


these spacecraft have continued to travel farther away from us. Voyager 1 is so far away that it is now in interstellar space— the region between the stars. Voyager 2 is in the very outer part of our solar system. No other spacecraft have ever flown this far away. Both spacecraft are still


sending information back to Mendocino 2015


Earth. This data will help us learn about conditions in the distant solar system and inter- stellar space. The Voyagers have enough


fuel and power to operate un- til 2025 and beyond. Some- time after this they will not be able to communicate with Earth anymore. Unless some- thing stops them, they will continue to travel on and on, passing other stars after many thousands of years. Each Voyager spacecraft also carries a message. Both


SPACE Trivia


In the summer of 2012, a NASA spacecraft named


Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to enter interstellar space.


Voyager 1 was launched in 1977. By 1989 it had visited Jupiter and Saturn, and crossed the orbits of (but did not visit) Uranus, and Neptune.


As of 2015, it is over 12,161,300,000 miles away from Earth.


As of February 2018, Voy- ager is roughly 141 astro- nomical units (sun-Earth distances) from Earth.


That’s roughly 13.2 billion miles, or 21.2 billion kilo- meters. You can look at its current distance on this NASA website.


spacecraft carry a golden record with scenes and sounds from Earth. The records also contain music and greetings in different languages. So, if intelligent life ever find these spacecraft, they may learn something about Earth and us as well!


MORE?: www.spaceplace.nasa.gov/voyager-to-planets/en/


In 300 years it will reach the beginning of the Oort Cloud. The Oort Cloud is a collec- tion of icy material where many comets come from. This material is likely the furthest stuff still orbiting around our sun.


In 30,000 years it will reach the end of the Oort Cloud. The Oort Cloud is huge!


40,000 years from now it will be closer to another star than to our own sun.


28 • February 2019 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC. A philosopher once said, ‘Half of good philosophy is good grammar.’ ~ A. P. Martinich


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