Showing posts with label Voyager. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Voyager. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Voyager 1, more than 35 years of service

Voyager 1's travel is amazing. It is the furthest man-made object and was launched on September 5, 1977. In November 2012, it reached an astonishing distance of 123 AU, with 1 AU being the distance from Sun to Earth (roughly 150 million kilometers). Voyager 1 is on the brink of reaching interstellar space, thus leaving the Solar System.

The initial goal of the Voyager 1 was a flyby of Jupiter and Saturn, to learn more about those planets. Those goals were completed in 1979 and 1980.

Voyager one has a speed of 17,26 km/s, which is also a record for a man-made object.

Voyager 1 has taken some amazing photos over time:
The Great Red Spot on Jupiter
Saturn, from 5,3 million kilometers
Earth (the white pixel in the right "beam") as seen from 6 billion km away, known as "Pale Blue Dot"