38. Voyager 2
Voyager 2 was the second man made object to go into interstellar space after Voyager 1. It won lots and lots of firsts as well. Voyager 2 I find more interesting than Voyager 1. Do you want to learn about one of the coolest spacecraft? Read on then!
Photo by Ryan Howerter courtesy of Flickr: http://www.ryanhowerter.net
Voyager 2 has lots of firsts. here they are...
the first human-made object to fly past Uranus.
the first human-made object to fly by Neptune.
the only spacecraft to study all four of the solar system's giant planets at close range.
discovered a 14th moon of Jupiter.
At Neptune, it discovered five moons, four rings, and a "Great Dark Spot."
At Uranus, it discovered 10 moons and two rings.
And I can also tell you the key dates:
August 20 1977: the launch of voyager 2 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S.A.
July 6 1979: the flyby of Jupiter
Aug. 26, 1981: Saturn flyby, including amazing images
Jan. 24, 1986: Uranus flyby, finding more moons
Aug. 25, 1989: Neptune flyby, finding moons
Dec. 10, 2018: Entered interstellar space
Voyager 2's aim was to get more information about the outer planets (otherwise known as the ringed planets or the gas planets). These are the planets farthest from the sun, the coldest and biggest planets in the solar system. As well as getting pretty images of these planets, the journey of the Voyagers was planned to take advantage of a rare planetary alignment to study the outer solar system up close.
This rare alignment was of Jupiter and Saturn. The distance between the planets is always changing because planets are constantly moving around the sun and some planets travel faster than others. Throughout the 1980's people were amazed and thrilled to see up close images coming back of the outer planets.
The solar system is tiny compared to the Milky Way galaxy, but compared to Earth it is huge. If the sun was the size of a basketball, the Earth would be the size of a pin head and would be 30 metres away. Neptune is only four times the size of Earth, so it would be the size of a big blue pin, but it would be four football fields away! But that is close compared to the hypothetical Planet Nine that would be five kilometres away. You can read about Planet Nine on my previous blog.
Head to my YouTube channel to learn more about space. Make sure you subscribe (it's the law).
Until next time, give me space!
Henry
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