what did voyager 2 discover about saturn

In 1981, Voyager 2's visit to Saturn completely changed the hunt for aliens

The hunt for habitable worlds owes a debt to this moment in planetary science history.

Forty years ago, NASA scientist Linda Spilker started sleeping at the office. It was her first job out of college, but she wasn’t camping out because she was over-worked and chained to her desk. Instead, she was waiting for an exquisite moment in human history: The first time Voyager 2 would fly by Saturn and its moons, and, critically, the images it would return to Earth of the distinctive ringed planet.

“I’d bring my sleeping bag into my office, and I’d have like a timeline of when the pictures would come back to the Earth,” she recalls for Inverse . “A lot of people did this, so you could sometimes go into somebody’s office, and you might see a pair of feet sticking out from under the desk.”

Voyager 2’s flyby wasn’t the first time a spacecraft gave scientists a close-up view of the gas giant and its moons — that privilege went to its sister spacecraft Voyager 1, which entered the Saturn system on November 12, 1980.

But the flyby, which took place on August 26, 1981, provided scientists here on Earth with important observations that, combined with those of Voyager 1, have informed every NASA mission to the Saturn system since.

“We could go in and tweak the designs and the observations for Voyager 2.”

NASA’s Cassini, Huygens, and, importantly, the upcoming Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan to search for signs of life all owe a debt to this moment in history.

What Voyager 2 discovered around Saturn — When Spilker graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics and went to work for NASA in 1977, they gave her a choice of missions., including a brand new mission set to launch that year — Voyager.

“When they told me that Voyager was headed to Jupiter and Saturn, and possibly onto Uranus, and Neptune, I said, ‘Sign me up,’” she says.

Spilker watched Voyager 2 launch in August of 1977 and then settled into her role on the science team for both space probes until they reached the Saturn system. Voyager 1 made it on November 12, 1980, and just a little shy of one year later, Voyager 2 entered the Saturn system on August 26, 1981.

“The first flyby was unique in that we found so many interesting new things. We got to see the detailed structure, for instance, in Saturn’s rings,” Spilker says. With these data in hand, the scientists on the ground could plan for the next flyby — and what they wanted to find.

“We could go in and tweak the designs and the observations for Voyager 2,” Spilker says.

Voyager 2 took a closer look at Saturn’s rings, particularly the narrow, outermost “F” ring.

“We saw a lot of changes in that ring, in particular, these sorts of kinks and braids that we could see in that ring,” Spilker says.

Saturn’s rings as imaged by Voyager 2.

Voyager 2 revealed that Saturn’s rings are anything but “bland sheets of material,” but rather intricate, detailed, and dynamic structures. Spilker would later use Voyager 2’s stellar and radio occultation data — measurements of how starlight and radio waves were influenced by the rings while passing through them — to complete her Ph.D. in geophysics and space physics.

“The way the waves damp out tell you something about the surface mass density and about the densities of particles,” she says.

“We saw evidence of tectonic fractures, softened craters.”

“I was always a big fan of the rings after having used so much ring data for my thesis.”

Identifying habitable worlds — Less visually beautiful, but perhaps more intellectually curious, were the observations collected by Voyager 2 of two of Saturn’s moons, Titan and Enceladus. These data would inform both later NASA missions and the scientific search for alien life.

Enceladus is now known to harbor a global liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust, making it a prime candidate target to search for extraterrestrial life. But before the Voyager craft made it to Saturn, scientists were not even sure the small, 500-kilometer diameter world was geologically active — a key ingredient for life.

“What was really astonishing was to see Enceladus and just how bright and pristine this world looked,” Spilker says.

“We saw evidence of tectonic fractures, softened craters,” she recalls.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus as captured by Voyager 2.

NASA’s 2005 Cassini mission conducted multiple flybys of the little moon and took images of geysers erupting from Enceladus’s southern polar region. Cassini even flew through the geysers’ plumes, sampling what is believed to be water spewing up from the subsurface ocean.

Meanwhile, the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, remained obscured by haze during the Voyager missions. But the data Voyager 1 and 2 collected was then used to better equip the Cassini spacecraft and the Huygens lander , which separated from Cassini to land on Titan on January 14, 2005.

Saturn’s largest moon Titan as imaged by Voyager 2.

Together, they revealed a world of hydrocarbon lakes and water ice. Titan, scientists confirmed, was another intriguing candidate for hosting extraterrestrial life.

“All the things we learned with Voyager informed us and helped us build the Huygens probe,” Spilker says. She would know, as she joined the Cassini team in 1988.

“Had we not had that information from Voyager, it might have been much harder to put together.”

How Voyager 2 still influences NASA missions to Saturn —  Voyager to Cassini and Huygens — each science mission informs the next, according to Planetary Scientist Elizabeth Turtle . Turtle is the primary investigator on the upcoming Dragonfly mission to Titan set to launch in the mid-2030s.

“Titan has been doing prebiotic chemistry experiments for us.”

“Each mission provides information that is the basis for future missions,” she says. “But each mission also raises questions, and those become the questions the next missions try to tackle.”

One of the big mysteries about Titan following the Voyager mission’s flyby was what lay on the moon’s surface. Cassini and Huygens answered that question, making observations that revealed a dense atmosphere rich in complex carbon molecules and a surface made of water ice. Turtle says these could include the ingredients necessary for the chemical reactions that could lead to the genesis of life.

Dragonfly on Titan, as imagined by an artist.

Now it’s Dragonfly’s turn to answer the follow-up question as to whether or not those ingredients are indicative of signs of life on Titan.

An octocopter drone, Dragonfly will fly from place to place to sample the surface of Titan.

“Titan has been doing prebiotic chemistry experiments for us,” Turtle says. “What dragonfly is designed to do is to get there and pick up the results of those experiments and tell us whether there are biologically relevant compounds on the surface of Titan.”

How Voyager 2 keeps on keeping on — As for Voyager and Spilker, they have both left planetary science far behind. Earlier this year, Spilker rejoined the Voyager 2 mission as its deputy project scientist. Only now, instead of studying Saturn's rings, she’s studying the interstellar medium 150 astronomical units from the Sun: Voyager 2 officially left the Solar System on November 5, 2018.

“I think the goal is to keep taking as much science data for as long as we can,” Spilker says of the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which is now in its 44th year of operations.

“It’s gonna be a long time until we ever get another mission as far from the Sun as Voyager.”

Spilker recalls a statement made by Richard Laeser, then the Voyager project manager, after the Saturn flyby. “Voyager is in its post-retirement years,” Laeser said, and “is very healthy for its age.”

“I just had to chuckle,” Spilker says, “Because that was in 1985, and here we are in 2021, and the Voyagers — both of them are still going strong.”

• Space Science

News | August 23, 2016

​35 years on, voyager's legacy continues at saturn.

Up-close views from the Voyagers, like this one from Voyager 2, showed Saturn and its rings as never before . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Saturn, with its alluring rings and numerous moons, has long fascinated stargazers and scientists. After an initial flyby of Pioneer 11 in 1979, humanity got a second, much closer look at this complex planetary system in the early 1980s through the eyes of NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft.

Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn 35 years ago -- on Aug. 25, 1981. What the Voyagers revealed at the planet was so phenomenal that, just one year later, a joint American and European working group began discussing a mission that would carry on Voyager's legacy at Saturn. That mission -- named Cassini -- has been studying the Saturn system since 2004. Cassini has followed up on many of Voyager's discoveries, and has deepened our understanding of what some might call a "mini solar system."

"Saturn, like all of the planets the Voyagers visited, was full of exciting discoveries and surprises," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at Caltech in Pasadena, California. "By giving us unprecedented views of the Saturn system, Voyager gave us plenty of reasons to go back for a closer look."

Many Mysterious Moons

Voyager's Saturn flybys provided a thrilling look at the planet's moons -- a diverse menagerie of worlds, each with unique character and charm. Voyager's images transformed the moons from points of light to fully realized places. Dramatic landscapes on Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus and other moons tantalized scientists with features hinting at tortured pasts.

"The stars of the Saturn system are the moons, which surprised all of us on both the Voyager and Cassini missions," said Linda Spilker, project scientist for Cassini at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. Spilker also served on the Voyager science team.

One of the key findings of the Voyagers' visits to Saturn was that the planet's moons had evidence of past geological activity and that Enceladus -- the brightest, most reflective planetary body scientists had ever seen -- could still be active.

Cassini set out to delve deeper into the nature of these moons, and found that, indeed, icy Enceladus has geysers erupting to this day. Cassini also confirmed that Enceladus is the source of Saturn's E ring, which was suggested by Voyager. But while Voyager images of wispy terrain hinted at ice volcanoes on Dione, Cassini found this feathery coating was actually a system of bright canyons.

…Especially Titan

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, was a high-priority target for the Voyager mission. Gerard Kuiper, for whom the Kuiper Belt is named, had discovered in 1944 that Titan had an atmosphere containing methane. Observations from both Voyagers showed that Titan's atmosphere was primarily composed of nitrogen, with a few percent methane and smaller amounts of other complex hydrocarbons, such as ethane, propane and acetylene. No other moon in the solar system has a dense atmosphere.

Mission planners mapped out a path through the Saturn system that provided the gravitational boost needed to send Voyager 2 onward to Uranus . But because of intense interest in Titan's atmosphere, the giant moon was the higher priority. In fact, the team would have directed Voyager 2 much closer to Titan if Voyager 1 had not been successful in observing it.

"To fly close to Titan, Voyager 2 would have swung upward out of the plane of the planets, and couldn't have gone on to visit any others," Stone said. "It was fortunate that Voyager 1's observations of Titan went flawlessly, so that Voyager 2 could continue traveling to Uranus and Neptune."

To the Voyagers, Titan appeared as a featureless orange ball because of dense haze in its atmosphere. Seeing through this haze was a chief goal of the Cassini mission. Cassini carried cameras with infrared vision that could see through the haze, a radar that could map the surface in detail, and the European Huygens probe, which landed on the moon's frigid surface on Jan. 14, 2005. We now know, thanks to Cassini, that smoggy Titan has methane lakes and flooded canyons .

New Shapes and Sizes

Voyager discovered four new moons and sharpened our view of some that were previously known. The spacecraft also revealed how the gravitational pull of these satellites causes ripples in Saturn's rings, much like the wake of a ship on the sea. There were also surprising gaps in the rings, some caused by moons embedded within them.

Voyager also revealed an immense hexagonal feature in the clouds that surrounded Saturn's north pole, which Cassini found was still going strong a quarter century later. Additionally, Voyager measured the wind speeds, temperature and density of Saturn's atmosphere. With Voyager's measurements as a starting point, Cassini further explored how Saturn's atmosphere changes with the seasons.

Lingering Mysteries of Saturn and Beyond

While both missions have vastly improved our understanding of Saturn, its rings and moons, there are still mysteries galore. For example, the exact length of Saturn's day continues to elude researchers. The Voyagers measured it to be a period of 10.66 hours, but Cassini has measured two different, changing periods in the north and south.

Voyager also made the first up-close observations of Saturn's rings, discovering new thin and faint rings, along with the ghostly features called spokes. But despite more than a decade of observations with Cassini, scientists are still unsure about the age of the rings -- they could be hundreds of millions of years old, or several billion. Cassini, in turn, has prompted new questions of its own, such as whether the ocean worlds Enceladus and Titan could be habitable.

"The twin Voyagers rewrote the textbooks on Saturn, its rings and moons, and we couldn't wait to go back with Cassini," Spilker said. "New mysteries uncovered by Cassini will await the next missions to follow in the footsteps of Voyager."

Voyager 2’s mission of discovery continues to this day. It is now part of the Heliophysics System Observatory, a collection of missions that explore our space environment, and which contribute to protecting future missions on their journeys. Voyager now explores what's known as the interstellar boundary region, where material blowing out from the sun encounters similar winds from other stars.

The two Voyager spacecraft, as well as Cassini, were built by JPL, which continues to operate the three missions. JPL is a division of Caltech. For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/voyager

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

Elizabeth Landau Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6425 [email protected]

Written by Elizabeth Landau and Preston Dyches

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Ready player two: where is Voyager 2 now

46 years of flying to infinity… That’s how long NASA’s Voyagers have been traveling through space. We’ve told you the story of Voyager 1 before, and now it’s the turn of its twin brother — Voyager 2. So, let’s dive into the details of the Voyager 2 mission.

General Voyager 2 facts

Voyager 2 is one of the most iconic and successful space probes ever launched by NASA. It is the first human-made object to fly by Neptune and Uranus, and the only spacecraft to study all four of the solar system’s giant planets at close range. Here are some key facts about Voyager 2:

• Voyager 2 launch date: August 20, 1977, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan III-E/Centaur rocket.
• Primary mission objective: to learn the outer planets of the Solar System, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, to study their atmospheres, magnetic fields, moons, and rings. Besides that similar to Voyager 1, Voyager 2 carries a “Golden Record” with sounds, images, and greetings from Earth, intended to communicate with potential extraterrestrial civilizations.
• Interstellar space : on November 5, 2018, Voyager 2 has exited the heliosphere (the region influenced by the Sun) and entered interstellar space. This made the probe the second human-made object to reach this milestone, after Voyager 1.
• Current mission status : Despite being launched 46 years ago, Voyager 2 is still operational and communicating with Earth. It continues to send back valuable data from the edge of our solar system, providing insights into the conditions of interstellar space.
• Current distance from Earth: over 19.9 billion kilometres (about 12.4 billion miles) or 133 A.U.

Planetary Flybys (closest approach):

• Jupiter: on July 9, 1979,
• Saturn: on August 25, 1981,
• Uranus: on January 24, 1986,
• Neptune: on August 25, 1989

How did the Voyager project originate?

The project idea originated in 1964 at the suggestion of Gary Flandro from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The young engineer pointed out that the alignment of the outer planets of the solar system, which occurs once every 175 years and was supposed to occur in the late 1970s, could allow one explorer to sequentially visit the systems of all four gas giants using a gravitational manoeuvre. Not wanting to miss this unique opportunity, NASA launched the Grand Tour program, in which it planned to build two new probes for two missions instead of one. The first launch was planned in 1977 (to Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto), and the second in 1979 to Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. Such a scheme made it possible to reduce the total mission time, compared to the launch of one probe, by almost half: from 13 to 7.5 years.

But the American budget was not without limits, and in December 1971, the US Congress cancelled funding for the Grand Tour in favour of the already approved Space Shuttle program. Instead, NASA was asked to limit itself to visiting only two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, using two probes of the then-well-established Mariner class.

The program’s working title, Mariner Jupiter-Saturn, was changed to Voyager just a few months before launch. NASA felt that Mariner 11 and 12, improved specifically for the mission, were worthy of a separate name.

What is Voyager 2?

Voyager 2 is a space probe, unique, and so incredibly reliable and stable, that, even after 45 years of travelling into outer space, it is still proving itself. The probes are almost identical in design and set of scientific instruments. Each probe about five million parts, with minor differences due to different mission objectives.

Here are the specs of the Voyager 2 spacecraft:

Voyager 2 pictures

These photos from the NASA/SPL site help you to get an in-depth look at the science instruments aboard the Voyager spacecraft and the construction details of the probe.

When was Voyager 2 launched?

Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, from Cape Canaveral SLC-41, on a Titan IIIE/Centaur launch vehicle.

Even though the study of Uranus and Neptune was not officially included in the mission program (a guaranteed reaching of these planets would require the construction of devices with more advanced characteristics), the flight trajectory was calculated based on this possibility.

Why was Voyager 2 launched first?

The launch order and flight paths of the probes were planned to ensure that the overall goals of the program were achieved.

Although Voyager 2 was launched 16 days before its companion, due to its longer trajectory, it should have reached Jupiter and Saturn later than Voyager 1 by 4 and 9 months, respectively. This made it possible to adjust the Voyager 2 flight program depending on the results obtained by Voyager 1; in particular, to decide whether to send it along the Grand Tour trajectory, that is, to Uranus and Neptune.

Besides, if the launch of Voyager 2 had failed, then Voyager 1 could have been sent along the Grand Tour trajectory.

Where did Voyager 2 visit?

During the first 12 years of its journey, Voyager 2 visited all four planets of the outer group, making a lot of important discoveries that significantly expanded the scientific understanding of these gas giants’ systems.

Between December 10, 1977, and October 21, 1978, Voyager 2 successfully crossed the asteroid belt and headed towards Jupiter. From April 24 to August 5, 1979, the probe made observations of Jupiter and its five satellites Callisto, Io, Ganymede, Amalthea and Europa, sending more than 17,000 images back to Earth. On July 9, 1979, the spacecraft made its closest approach to Jupiter at a distance of 350,000 miles from the planet’s upper layer clouds. Voyager 2 showed that the Great Red Spot is a complex system of storms, found signs of water on Io’s surface, confirmed the existence of a thin ring surrounding the planet, and discovered another moon beyond it, later named Adrastea.

Voyager 2 began its long-range observations of Saturn on June 5, 1981, when it was still 41 million miles away from the planet. By September 28, when observations of the Saturn system were completed, the spacecraft sent 16,000 images of the planet, its rings and moons back to Earth. On September 29, Voyager 2 fired its course correction thrusters to head towards its next target, Uranus.

Voyager 2 began observing Uranus on November 4, 1985, creating a series of time-lapse videos of the planet and its surroundings. Due to the axial tilt of Uranus by almost 98 degrees to its orbital plane (the planet is practically lying on its side), the meeting of Voyager 2 was like aiming for a bull’s eye. On January 24, 1986, about 11 hours before the closest approach, Voyager 2 entered the planet’s magnetosphere.

The encounter phase with Uranus was completed on February 25, 1986. What did Voyager 2 discover there? The spacecraft took over 7,000 pictures, revealing 11 new moons and two new rings.

Voyager 2 Neptune research continued from June 5 to October 2, 1989. The probe made more than 9,000 images of the planet and its surroundings, which helped to discover five new satellites of Proteus, Talas, Naiad, Despina, and Galatea, while also confirming the existence of the Larissa satellite. The probe also revealed traces of geysers on Triton that spew dark material into the rarefied atmosphere of the moon, which later settles back to its surface.

Interstellar space

After the reconnaissance of Neptune, Voyager 2 began its interstellar mission, which continues to this day. On November 5, 2018, the ship left the heliosphere and entered interstellar space.

On July 18, 2023, Voyager 2 overtook Pioneer 10 and became the second farthest spacecraft from the Sun after Voyager 1.

Where is Voyager 2 now in 2023?

Voyager 2 is currently in the constellation of Pavo, at a distance of 9.9 billion kilometres (about 12.4 billion miles) or 133 A.U from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 20h 08 m 36s and the Declination is -59° 13’ 56”.

Right now, from the United Kingdom, the spacecraft is not visible because it is below the horizon. You can check Voyager 2 Rise and Set Times to know when it will rise at your location.

How fast is Voyager 2 travelling?

Voyager 2 speed is approximately 55,470 km/h (or 34,390 miles per hour or 15 km/s) relative to the Sun. If it were in the atmosphere, it would fly around the Earth’s equator in 14 minutes. The ship has already passed all the large objects, so their gravity does not prevent it from developing a speed sufficient to leave the solar system.

In 2018, Voyager 2 reached the edge of the heliosphere, which extends twice as far as Pluto, but to break out of the Solar System, it needs to cross the Outer Limit of the Oort Cloud, which defines the hypothetical cosmographic boundary of the Solar System. According to scientists, this will take another 30,000 years. Incredibly long!

Has Voyager 2 lost contact?

On 21st July 2023, at a distance of 133 AU (19.9 billion km) from Earth, contact with the Voyager 2 probe was lost . The reason was an erroneous command sent to the Voyager computer, as a result of which it changed the orientation of the ship, and its antenna deviated from the line of communication with the Earth by two degrees. This was enough to stop the spacecraft from transmitting and receiving data.

Fortunately, just for such a case, the probe was programmed to “reset” its orientation data several times a year so that its antenna always remained directed towards the Earth. The next reset will take place on October 15th. But NASA decided not to risk it. They used a powerful radio telescope in the Australian capital, Canberra, to bombard the Voyager 2 area with messages containing the right command in the hope of regaining lost contact.

As a result, on 4th August, the space agency confirmed that the data from the spacecraft had been received and that it was working correctly.

Will Voyager 2 ever stop?

This can happen if the probe collides with another object or is pulled into the orbit of a celestial body by its gravity. But Voyager 2 travels in interstellar space, which is very rarefied, so scientists consider such a scenario unlikely. Even when a ship runs out of its energy sources and is no longer steerable, it will simply drift forever in desolate space.

Will Voyager 2 ever come back to Earth?

No, Voyager 2 will never return to Earth, primarily, because it was not built for a return. But even assuming NASA wants to bring the probe back, its engineers don’t have a plan for it. The probe is too far away from Earth and has lost too much power to make a thruster adjustment for the return course.

One can only hope that Voyager 2 fulfills its final mission — deliver a famous Golden Record , a message to any potential extraterrestrial civilizations. After all, there must be someone in this universe besides us.

Voyager 2 timeline

An amateur rocket enthusiast with a keen interest in all space-related activity. Looking forward to the day when the UK starts launching rockets into space and I'm able to watch launches (from a safe distance of course).

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• The Contents
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golden record

Where are they now.

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galleries  /  images voyager took

Images voyager took of saturn.

The Voyager 1 and 2 Saturn encounters occurred nine months apart, in November 1980 and August 1981. Voyager 1 is leaving the solar system. Voyager 2 completed its encounter with Uranus in January 1986 and with Neptune in August 1989, and is now also en route out of the solar system.

For a summary of scientific findings by the two Voyagers at Saturn, click here .

Saturn by Voyager 2.

Larger version of saturn., false-color view of saturn., voyager image of saturn moon enceladus., montage of saturnian system..

Saturn and three moons. Tethys. Dion and Rhea. Aug. 4, 1982. 13 million miles.

Saturn. Moons Tethys. Dione. Shadows, rings and moons on Saturn. Photo Nov. 3. 1980. Range 13 million km.

Saturn’s Northern Hemisphere. Aug. 19, 1981. Range 4.4 million miles.

Enhanced image. Saturn’s clouds. Photo Nov. 5, 1980. Range 8 million km.

Saturn C-ring and B-ring with many ringlets. False-color image. Aug. 23, 1981.

Saturn rings. Color variations indicate different chemical composition.

Saturn rings with "spoke" features in B-ring. Aug. 22, 1981. 2.5 million miles.

Wide-angle view of rings just before Voyager crossed ring plane. Shows entire ring system highly foreshortened.

F-ring. Two braided separate orbit rings. Photo Nov. 12, 1980. Range 750,000 km.

Moon Titan and thick haze. Photo Nov. 12, 1980. Range 435,000 km.

Saturn’s Moon Tethys. Note huge canyon system.

Moon Dione. Many impact craters. Photo Nov. 12, 1980.

Saturn’s Moon Enceladus. 310 miles in diameter. Aug. 25, 1982. 74,000 miles.

The most distant human-made object

No spacecraft has gone farther than NASA's Voyager 1. Launched in 1977 to fly by Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in August 2012 and continues to collect data.

Mission Type

What is Voyager 1?

Voyager 1 has been exploring our solar system for more than 45 years. The probe is now in interstellar space, the region outside the heliopause, or the bubble of energetic particles and magnetic fields from the Sun.

• Voyager 1 was the first spacecraft to cross the heliosphere, the boundary where the influences outside our solar system are stronger than those from our Sun.
• Voyager 1 is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space.
• Voyager 1 discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and two new Jovian moons: Thebe and Metis.
• At Saturn, Voyager 1 found five new moons and a new ring called the G-ring.

In Depth: Voyager 1

Voyager 1 was launched after Voyager 2, but because of a faster route, it exited the asteroid belt earlier than its twin, having overtaken Voyager 2 on Dec. 15, 1977.

Voyager 1 at Jupiter

Voyager 1 began its Jovian imaging mission in April 1978 at a range of 165 million miles (265 million km) from the planet. Images sent back by January the following year indicated that Jupiter’s atmosphere was more turbulent than during the Pioneer flybys in 1973–1974.

Beginning on January 30, Voyager 1 took a picture every 96 seconds for a span of 100 hours to generate a color timelapse movie to depict 10 rotations of Jupiter. On Feb. 10, 1979, the spacecraft crossed into the Jovian moon system and by early March, it had already discovered a thin (less than 30 kilometers thick) ring circling Jupiter.

Voyager 1’s closest encounter with Jupiter was at 12:05 UT on March 5, 1979 at a range of about 174,000 miles (280,000 km). It encountered several of Jupiter’s Moons, including Amalthea, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, returning spectacular photos of their terrain, opening up completely new worlds for planetary scientists.

The most interesting find was on Io, where images showed a bizarre yellow, orange, and brown world with at least eight active volcanoes spewing material into space, making it one of the most (if not the most) geologically active planetary body in the solar system. The presence of active volcanoes suggested that the sulfur and oxygen in Jovian space may be a result of the volcanic plumes from Io which are rich in sulfur dioxide. The spacecraft also discovered two new moons, Thebe and Metis.

Voyager 1 at Saturn

Following the Jupiter encounter, Voyager 1 completed an initial course correction on April 9, 1979 in preparation for its meeting with Saturn. A second correction on Oct. 10, 1979 ensured that the spacecraft would not hit Saturn’s moon Titan.

Its flyby of the Saturn system in November 1979 was as spectacular as its previous encounter. Voyager 1 found five new moons, a ring system consisting of thousands of bands, wedge-shaped transient clouds of tiny particles in the B ring that scientists called “spokes,” a new ring (the “G-ring”), and “shepherding” satellites on either side of the F-ring—satellites that keep the rings well-defined.

During its flyby, the spacecraft photographed Saturn’s moons Titan, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea. Based on incoming data, all the moons appeared to be composed largely of water ice. Perhaps the most interesting target was Titan, which Voyager 1 passed at 05:41 UT on November 12 at a range of 2,500 miles (4,000 km). Images showed a thick atmosphere that completely hid the surface. The spacecraft found that the moon’s atmosphere was composed of 90% nitrogen. Pressure ad temperature at the surface was 1.6 atmospheres and 356 °F (–180°C), respectively.

Atmospheric data suggested that Titan might be the first body in the solar system (apart from Earth) where liquid might exist on the surface. In addition, the presence of nitrogen, methane, and more complex hydrocarbons indicated that prebiotic chemical reactions might be possible on Titan.

Voyager 1’s closest approach to Saturn was at 23:46 UT on 12 Nov. 12, 1980 at a range of 78,000 miles(126,000 km).

Voyager 1’s ‘Family Portrait’ Image

Following the encounter with Saturn, Voyager 1 headed on a trajectory escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.5 AU per year, 35° out of the ecliptic plane to the north, in the general direction of the Sun’s motion relative to nearby stars. Because of the specific requirements for the Titan flyby, the spacecraft was not directed to Uranus and Neptune.

The final images taken by the Voyagers comprised a mosaic of 64 images taken by Voyager 1 on Feb. 14, 1990 at a distance of 40 AU of the Sun and all the planets of the solar system (although Mercury and Mars did not appear, the former because it was too close to the Sun and the latter because Mars was on the same side of the Sun as Voyager 1 so only its dark side faced the cameras).

This was the so-called “pale blue dot” image made famous by Cornell University professor and Voyager science team member Carl Sagan (1934-1996). These were the last of a total of 67,000 images taken by the two spacecraft.

Voyager 1’s Interstellar Mission

All the planetary encounters finally over in 1989, the missions of Voyager 1 and 2 were declared part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), which officially began on Jan. 1, 1990.

The goal was to extend NASA’s exploration of the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun’s sphere of influence, and “possibly beyond.” Specific goals include collecting data on the transition between the heliosphere, the region of space dominated by the Sun’s magnetic field and solar field, and the interstellar medium.

On Feb. 17, 1998, Voyager 1 became the most distant human-made object in existence when, at a distance of 69.4 AU from the Sun when it “overtook” Pioneer 10.

On Dec. 16, 2004, Voyager scientists announced that Voyager 1 had reported high values for the intensity for the magnetic field at a distance of 94 AU, indicating that it had reached the termination shock and had now entered the heliosheath.

The spacecraft finally exited the heliosphere and began measuring the interstellar environment on Aug. 25, 2012, the first spacecraft to do so.

On Sept. 5, 2017, NASA marked the 40th anniversary of its launch, as it continues to communicate with NASA’s Deep Space Network and send data back from four still-functioning instruments—the cosmic ray telescope, the low-energy charged particles experiment, the magnetometer, and the plasma waves experiment.

The Golden Record

Each of the Voyagers contain a “message,” prepared by a team headed by Carl Sagan, in the form of a 12-inch (30 cm) diameter gold-plated copper disc for potential extraterrestrials who might find the spacecraft. Like the plaques on Pioneers 10 and 11, the record has inscribed symbols to show the location of Earth relative to several pulsars.

The records also contain instructions to play them using a cartridge and a needle, much like a vinyl record player. The audio on the disc includes greetings in 55 languages, 35 sounds from life on Earth (such as whale songs, laughter, etc.), 90 minutes of generally Western music including everything from Mozart and Bach to Chuck Berry and Blind Willie Johnson. It also includes 115 images of life on Earth and recorded greetings from then U.S. President Jimmy Carter (1924– ) and then-UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim (1918–2007).

By January 2024, Voyager 1 was about 136 AU (15 billion miles, or 20 billion kilometers) from Earth, the farthest object created by humans, and moving at a velocity of about 38,000 mph (17.0 kilometers/second) relative to the Sun.

National Space Science Data Center: Voyager 1

A library of technical details and historic perspective.

Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration

A comprehensive history of missions sent to explore beyond Earth.

Discover More Topics From NASA

Our Solar System

Life on Enceladus? Europe eyes astrobiology mission to Saturn ocean moon

Such a mission, which would launch in the 2040s for arrival in the 2050s, could be the first to search for life in the Saturn system.

Europe could be heading to the Saturn moon Enceladus in search of life, according to a new report from planetary scientists who are masterminding a future large-class mission to the outer solar system.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is exercising considerable forward-thinking with its "Voyager 2050" program, which describes the scientific goals and missions for the middle of this century. Its overarching theme of "moons of the solar system " was chosen in 2021, and now an expert report has recommended that Enceladus should be the primary target.

Enceladus is a 309-mile-wide (498 kilometers) icy moon of Saturn . In 2006, the Cassini mission discovered that giant plumes of water vapor are spewing out from deep fractures in the surface, nicknamed "tiger stripes," located near Enceladus' south pole. The plumes are the result of Saturn's gravity stretching and squeezing Enceladus' innards like putty, injecting energy into the moon 's interior to keep water liquid in a global ocean and periodically squirting some of that water out through the tiger stripes, like squeezing water out of a bottle.

Related: Saturn's moons: Facts about the weird and wonderful satellites of the ringed planet

ESA convened a 12-person panel of planetary scientists from across Europe and chaired by Zita Martins, who is an astrobiologist at Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal, to asses the science that could be gained from venturing to Enceladus, its fellow Saturn satellite Titan or the Jupiter ocean moon Europa . Meanwhile, engineers at ESA's Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) explored what kind of mission would be most realistic given current and near-future technologies.

"The search for habitable conditions and for signatures of life in the solar system is challenging from a science and technology point of view, but very exciting," said Martins in a press statement .

From both a scientific and technology point of view, Enceladus came out on top, followed by Titan and then Europa.

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Enceladus has all the ingredients necessary for a potentially habitable environment. Liquid water — check. Organic molecules — check. A source of chemical energy to fuel life — check.

The report suggests that a mission to Enceladus (or Titan) be composed of both an orbiter and a lander. They'd be launched separately on Ariane 6 rockets and then rendezvous in Earth orbit before heading for Saturn. Once there, they'd perform several flybys of Saturn's other moons that could harbor oceans, such as Dione , Mimas and Rhea , before closing in on their target of either Enceladus or Titan.

If Enceladus were chosen, the lander would touch down in the south polar region near the tiger stripes and collect samples of the ocean that have snowed back onto the surface from the plumes. Alternatively, if ESA wished to dispense with the lander for budgetary reasons, the orbiter could fly through the plumes and sample material that way. This has been done previously, with the Cassini spacecraft. Although Cassini did not have the instruments capable of detecting life, it did find organic molecules from the ocean within the plumes. 

A lander as part of a Titan mission would focus on touching down in an empty lakebed that seasonally fills with liquid hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane, and sampling the sediments there. However, getting into low-Titan orbit where an orbiter could also sample the moon's upper atmosphere is challenging because of the significant delta-v (change in velocity) needed, which would require a more complex spacecraft with greater fuel reserves, which in turn increases the mass at launch. 

It's also worth pointing out that NASA is already developing a mission to Titan, namely a quadcopter called Dragonfly that's scheduled to launch in 2028 to explore the skies and surface of the big moon. Also, while Titan certainly possesses the organic chemistry that could assemble life's building blocks, the moon's astrobiological potential has recently been questioned in research that suggested that not enough organic material from the surface would reach its underground ocean.

Related: Titan: Facts about Saturn's largest moon

— Finding life on Saturn's moon Enceladus might be easier than we thought

— Saturn's moon Enceladus has all the ingredients for life in its icy oceans. But is life there?

— This snake robot could hunt alien life on icy moons like Saturn's Enceladus  

Europa Clipper that will blast off in October 2024, will already maximize the science that can be conducted from close flybys of Europa. To significantly further the science that can be done at Europa would require a lander, but estimates place the lifetime of any lander on the irradiated surface of Europa at just 10 days using current radiation shielding technology. Both ESA's scientific and CDF panels concluded that such a mission is not feasible at the current time .

If ESA can pull off an Enceladus mission, it would be a huge, potentially history-making achievement, depending upon what it finds. 

"An investigation into signs of past or present life around Saturn has never been achieved before," said Carole Mundell, who is the director of science at ESA. "It would guarantee ESA leadership in planetary science for decades to come."

The full report can be found on the European Space Agency's website. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Keith Cooper is a freelance science journalist and editor in the United Kingdom, and has a degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester. He's the author of "The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020) and has written articles on astronomy, space, physics and astrobiology for a multitude of magazines and websites.

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• Dr.Zilman About time! Stop wasting millions of dollars on that dead dusty desert of Mars. Reply

Dr.Zilman said: About time! Stop wasting millions of dollars on that dead dusty desert of Mars.

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