Page 70 - BBC Sky at Night - September 2017 UK

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12 NOVEMBER 1980 25 AUGUST 1981 24 JANUARY 1986 25 AUGUST 1989
Voyager 1 flies by Titan and Voyager 2 flies by Saturn but Voyager 2 has the first-ever Voyager 2 is the first probe to
Saturn, then begins its journey remains within the plane of the encounter with Uranus, revealing observe Neptune, a stormier
out of the Solar System planets, bound for Uranus a bland visible surface planet than its neighbour

The Great Red Spot as Europa was found to
seen by Voyager 2. Even have an icy crust, the
in the three months since streaks suggesting
the Voyager 1 encounter fractures
it had evolved, the white
band north of the spot
had not been there

Callisto was found
to be remarkably
unscarred,
save for this
tremendous
bullseye

Io was revealed
to be violently
volcanic; three
plumes are
visible here

only known active volcanoes in the Solar System latitudes and aurora-like emissions of ultraviolet
> ! Dust within Jupiter’s
were here on Earth, and here was a moon, just a newly discovered rings hydrogen at mid latitudes. They measured Titan’s
moon of Jupiter, that had 10 times more volcanic (top) and lightning on mass, studied its thick nitrogen atmosphere and
NASA/JPL-CALTECH X 22, MARK GARLICK mission from the start. The Voyagers also found Io as Voyager 1 began its long journey out of the
the night side of the
imaged 17 of Saturn’s moons, including three new
activity than here on Earth,” explains Voyager
planet (bottom)
discoveries: Atlas, Prometheus and Pandora.
project scientist Ed Stone, who has been with the
From there the two probes parted company
was shedding a thick torus of ionised sulphur and
oxygen, and revealed evidence for an ocean
Solar System. Voyager 2 headed to Uranus, where
beneath the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
it discovered 11 new moons and visited 16.
At Saturn, they studied the planet’s complex rings
It discovered the planet’s magnetic field and studied
and its atmosphere, and found aurorae at polar
skyatnightmagazine.com 2017 the ring system. At Neptune Voyager 2 discovered