Voyager – Astronomy Now

Voyager 1 probe fires long-dormant thrusters in interstellar space

3 December 2017 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has fired a set of four control thrusters for the first time in 37 years, giving the long-lived probe a new way to point itself on its cruise into interstellar space 13 billion miles from Earth.

Peculiarities of huge equatorial jet stream in Saturn’s atmosphere revealed

11 November 2016 Astronomy Now

The atmosphere of the planet Saturn has a wider, more intense jet stream than all the planets in the solar system. Winds gusting at speeds of up to 1,025 miles per hour blow from west to east in the equatorial atmosphere, thirteen times the strength of the most destructive hurricane force winds that form on the Earth’s equator.

35 Years On, Voyager’s Legacy Continues at Saturn

25 August 2016 Astronomy Now

Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn 35 years ago — on 25 August 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.

Chasms on Dione

18 August 2015 Astronomy Now

While not bursting with activity like its sister moon Enceladus, the surface of Saturn’s moon Dione is definitely not boring. Some parts of the surface are covered by linear features, called chasmata — bright icy cliffs among myriad fractures — which provide dramatic contrast to the round impact craters that typically cover moons.

The Voyager Mission Experience

4 October 2014 Astronomy Now

New Horizons science team members give personal accounts of their work during the Voyager Neptune encounter and their new assignments on the Pluto mission.