Voyager 2
Space probe
Facts
- Launch
- 20 August 1977
- Jupiter
- 9 July 1979, at about 645,000 km
- Saturn
- 26 August 1981, at about 101,000 km
- Uranus
- 24 January 1986, at about 81,500 km
- Neptune
- 25 August 1989, about 4800 km above the clouds
Voyager 2 is the twin of Voyager 1, launched by NASA on 20 August 1977, sixteen days before it: it is the first probe to have visited all four giant planets and the only one to have seen Uranus and Neptune up close. It passed Jupiter on 9 July 1979, Saturn on 26 August 1981, Uranus on 24 January 1986 and Neptune on 25 August 1989.
Around Uranus it discovered 10 new moons, two new rings and a magnetic field stronger than Saturn's. At Neptune it observed the Great Dark Spot, a storm that later vanished, and on Triton the geysers.
After Neptune the mission became the interstellar mission of the two Voyagers. On 5 November 2018, about 18 billion km from Earth, Voyager 2 left the heliosphere and entered interstellar space: the second human-made object to do so, after its twin.
The power from its generators drops every year, and since 2024 NASA has switched off two science instruments. In August 2026, in a manoeuvre nicknamed “Big Bang”, engineers swapped some systems for others that use less power: the three remaining instruments, which measure cosmic rays, the magnetic field and plasma waves, will be able to stay on for at least another year.
Like Voyager 1 it carries the golden record with sounds and images of Earth.
Sources
- NASA Science, Voyager 2
- NASA Science, Voyager 1
- NASA Science, Uranus: Exploration
- NASA Science, Neptune: Facts
- NASA Science, Triton
- NASA JPL, NASA's Voyager 2 Probe Enters Interstellar Space
- NASA Science, NASA Engineers Help Prolong Voyager 2's Science Mission
- NASA Science, Where Are Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 Now?