![]() ![]() Images showed a thick atmosphere that completely hid the surface. Perhaps the most interesting target was Titan, which Voyager 1 passed at 05:41 UT Nov. Based on incoming data, all the moons appeared to be composed largely of water ice. 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.ĭuring its flyby, the spacecraft photographed Saturn’s moons Titan, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea. Its flyby of the Saturn system in November 1979 was as spectacular as its previous encounter. 10, 1979, ensured that the spacecraft would not hit Saturn’s moon Titan. The spacecraft also discovered two new moons, Thebe and Metis.įollowing the Jupiter encounter, Voyager 1 completed an initial course correction April 9, 1979, in preparation for its meeting with Saturn. 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. Voyager 1’s closest encounter with Jupiter was at 12:05 UT March 5, 1979, at a range of about 174,000 miles (280,000 kilometers), following which it encountered several of Jupiter’s moons, including Amalthea (at a 261,100-mile or 420,200-kilometer range), Io (13,050 miles or 21,000 kilometers), Europa (45,830 miles or 733,760 kilometers), Ganymede (71,280 miles or 114,710 kilometers), and Callisto (78,540 miles or 126,400 kilometers), in that order, returning spectacular photos of their terrains and opening up completely new worlds for planetary scientists.Īmong the most interesting findings 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 bodies in the solar system. 10, 1979, the spacecraft crossed into the Jovian moon system and in early March, it discovered a thin ring circling Jupiter (less than 19-miles or 30 kilometers-thick). 30, 1979, Voyager 1 took a picture every 96 seconds for a span of 100 hours to generate a color time-lapse movie to depict 10 rotations of Jupiter. Images sent back by January 1979 indicated that Jupiter’s atmosphere was more turbulent than during the Pioneer flybys in 1973-1974.īeginning Jan. It began its Jovian imaging mission in April 1978 when it was about 165 million miles (265 million kilometers) from the planet. NASA's 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. Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD) 1, 2012: Voyager 1 enters interstellar spaceĪ 3D model of NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft. 16, 2006: 100 astronomical units reachedĪug. 1, 1990: Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) officially beganĪug. 17, 1998: Became the most distant human-made object after overtaking NASA's Pioneer 10
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