Top 10 Interesting Facts About NASA's Voyager-2 Space Probe:
1:Why It Is Designed:
The Voyager 2 Space Probe was designed to conduct a close-up study of the outer planets such as (the gas giants) Jupiter and Saturn and (the ice giants) Uranus and Neptune.
2:When It Was Launched:
The amazing Voyager 2 Space Probe was launched on 20th August 1977, 16 days prior to its twin space probe brother; the Voyager 1 Space Probe.
3:Voyager 2 Encountered Jupiter:
Voyager 2 transmitted images of Jupiter on 24th April 1979, for time-lapse movies of atmospheric circulation. Unlike Voyager 1, Voyager 2 made close passes to the Jovian moons on its way into the system, with scientists especially interested in more information from Europa and Io.
Voyager 2’s closest encounter to Jupiter was at 22:29 UT July 9, 1979, at a range of about 400,785 miles (645,000 kilometers). It transmitted new data on the planet’s clouds, its newly discovered four moons, and the ring system as well as 17,000 new pictures.
When the earlier Pioneers flew by Jupiter, they detected few atmospheric changes from one encounter to the second, but Voyager 2 detected many significant changes, including a drift in the Great Red Spot as well as changes in its shape and color.
4:Voyager 2 Encountered Saturn:
It saw Saturn on 22nd August 1981, two years after leaving the Jovian system, with imaging of the moon Iapetus. The closest encounter to Saturn was at 01:21 UT Aug. 26, 1981, at a range of about 63,000 miles (101,000 kilometers).
The spacecraft provided more detailed images of the ring “spokes” and kinks, and also the F-ring and its shepherding moons, all found by Voyager 1. Voyager 2’s data suggested that Saturn’s A-ring was perhaps only about 980 feet (300 meters) thick.
During the encounter, Voyager 2 also photographed the Saturn moons Hyperion (the “hamburger moon”), Enceladus, Tethys, and Phoebe as well as the more recently discovered Helene, Telesto, and Calypso.
5:Voyager 2 Encountered Uranus:
The Voyager 2 Space Probe flew closest to Uranus in January 1986. It was at that time the Voyager 2 sent massive amounts of data and thousands and thousands of images of its moons, atmosphere, rings, and magnetic rings back to Earth via radio waves to the Deep Space Network.
The Voyager 2 Space Probe captured images of the five largest moons of Uranus.
The existing rings and two new rings of the planet were studied in minute detail. Voyager helped to determine the rate of rotation of Uranus to be 17 hours and 14 minutes.
Voyager 2 Space Probe gave us the data about the atmospheric temperature of Uranus which is about -350 degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, the Voyager 2 Space Probe helped to detect a large and unusual magnetic field around Uranus.
6:Voyager 2 Encountered Neptune:
Voyager 2 Space Probe was the first man-made object to flyby Neptune.
Neptune belongs to the class of planets Scientists and Astronomers refer to as the gas giants. So, commonly Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are grouped together and called the gas giant planets.
The Voyager 2 Space Probe observed Neptune between the months of June and October in 1989, it was closest to Neptune in August of 1989. Voyager 2 also discovered the Great Dark Spot in the neighborhood of Neptune which later disappeared according to observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope.
After Voyager 2’s Neptune flyby in the year 1989 and subsequent reclassification of Pluto as a ‘dwarf planet’ in 2006; every planet in the Solar System has been visited by a space probe at least once.
7:Voyager 2 Carries A Message:
Voyager 2 space probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc. The disc carries photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings from people such as the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States and a medley, "Sounds of Earth," that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a collection of music including works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry, and Valya Balkanska. Other Eastern and Western classics are also included, as well as various performances of indigenous music from around the world.
Moreover, its golden record carries an hour-long recording of the brain waves of Carl Sagan’s wife, Ann Druyan. The recording of her brain activity was made while she was thinking about the diverse topics such as Earth’s history, everyday challenges faced by various previous civilizations, and the emotions people experience when they fall in love.
The record also contains greetings in 55 different languages.
8:Approaching the Final Frontier:
The Voyager 2 Space Probe is estimated to enter the regions of Interstellar Space soon, Scientists and Astronomers are counting down until this monumental feat is accomplished.
At its current speed, the Voyager 2 Space Probe is expected to reach Interstellar Space in the first few months of the year 2016. The plasma spectrometer is expected to provide information about the temperature and density of the plasma resident in this area of space, which is something Scientists and Astronomers have really only been able to speculate.
The Voyager 2 Space Probe is expected to send weak signals back to the Earth until the year 2025, via the Deep Space Network.
9:Nuclear Powered Probe:
Voyager 2 is equipped with 3 Multihundred-Watt radioisotope thermoelectric generators (MHW RTG). Each RTG includes 24 pressed plutonium oxide spheres, and provided enough heat to generate approximately 157 W of electrical power at launch. Collectively, the RTGs supplied the spacecraft with 470 watts at launch (halving every 87.7 years) and will allow operations to continue until at least 2020.
10:Innovative Technology:
The Voyager 2 Space Probe was among the first space probes to ever carry re-programmable computers. This innovation in technology allowed for massive improvements to post-launch missions and even the capability of changing missions post-launch.
The Voyager 2 Space Probe is equipped with re-programmable computers, this allows for Scientists, Astronomers, and Rocket Scientists to reprogram and make alterations to the space probe after launch. Voyager 2 also has a fault protection system in place, the system is designed to spot and trap errors – like a mini-version of R2-D2.
About The Future of Voyager-2:
Voyager 2 is not headed toward any particular star, although in roughly 42,000 years it will pass 1.7 light-years from the star Ross 248. And if undisturbed for 296,000 years, Voyager 2 should pass by the star Sirius at a distance of 4.3 light-years. Voyager 2 is expected to keep transmitting weak radio messages until at least the mid-2020s, more than 48 years after it was launched.
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