Mission Voyagers

 

43 years ago on September 5th 1977 NASA had launched its voyager 1 a space probe that was created to conduct studies of the outer solar system it took off into the sky on NASA's mission headed for a closer look at the outside planets their moons and their ring systems unknown to people at the time these probes would go a whole lot further studying unexplored territory and aiding scientists and understanding energy and radiation in space voyager 1 was launched 16 days after its twin voyager 2. on December 15 1977 on a faster and more direct route than its twin it had officially overtaken voyager 2 hurtling toward Jupiter and Saturn it was April 1978 when voyager 1 began its Jovian imaging mission the space probe was about 165 million miles from the planet by January 1979 images were being sent back that revealed Jupiter’s atmosphere it looked much more turbulent than what had been previously captured by January 30th 1979 voyager 1 was taking pictures every 96 seconds it took these snapshots for a duration of 100 hours producing a color time lapse of Jupiter rotating 10 times in early march it discovered a thin ring circling Jupiter about 19 miles thick on march 5th 1979 voyager 1 got as close to Jupiter as it ever would about 174.000 away it met quite a few of Jupiter’s moons first there was omothea then low Europe Ganymede callisto and interestingly two new moons thebe and Métis the space probe sent back breathtaking photos of their terrain flying by low voyager one's images showed a yellow orange and brown surface with at least eight active volcanoes spewing material into space having this information we now know that it's one of the most geologically active planetary bodies in the solar system because of the active volcanoes scientists believe that the sulfur and oxygen in Jovian space may be a product of the volcanic plumes coming from low which are rich in sulfur dioxide in preparation for its meeting with Saturn voyager 1 corrected its trajectory firing its thrusters just after Ronald Reagan had been elected president it then corrected again so that the probe wouldn't hit Saturn’s moon titan in November 1979 voyager 1 flew by Saturn and found five new moons a ring system tiny particles called spokes and a new ring called the g-ring the spacecraft captured its moons titan nemas and solidus tethus  dyoni and ria which all appeared to be composed largely of ice while passing titan voyager 1 found a thick atmosphere that completely hit its surface composed of 90 percent nitrogen titan suddenly was the first body in the solar system apart from earth where liquid might be present on its surface the presence of nitrogen and methane also indicated that prebiotic chemical reactions might be possible on this moon an amazing discovery on February 14 1990 voyager 1's cameras were directed backward capturing 60 images of the sun and planets from these images came the pale blue dot made famous by Carl Sagan a Cornell university professor and voyager team member 67 000 images had been taken by the two voyager spacecrafts but these images were their last the voyager cameras were turned off to save power and memory for a new mission on the first day of the new year in 1990 voyager 1 and 2 became part of a voyager interstellar mission the goal was to extend nasa's exploration of the solar system in the outer limits of the sun's realm of impact and perhaps beyond it was February 17 1998 when voyager 1 overtook pioneer 10's previous feat becoming the new most distant human-made object in existence on December 16 2004 voyager scientists announced that the space probe had reached the heliosheath a region of the heliosphere beyond the termination shock on October 25th 2012 voyager 1 began measuring the interstellar environment the first ever spacecraft to do so voyager 1 continues to communicate with nasa's deep space network it still has four functioning instruments the cosmic ray telescope the low energy charged particles experiment the magnetometer and the plasma waves experiment both voyagers are now over 11 billion miles from the sun in 2019 engineers began planning for difficult times in an effort to maintain the instruments and thrusters on the spacecraft for as long as they can the two voyager probes have been flying longer than any other spacecraft in history and we hope that they continue flying  for many years to come before we end today's video we have to talk about the golden record do you think aliens will ever come across the voyager 1 just in case they do it has a record which holds messages from humankind to outer space it has greetings in 55 languages images of certain individuals and locations from earth and music varying from beethoven to chuck berry's johnny b good pretty cool huh if you have enjoyed this voyager 1 video then you might want to check out one of these two videos here in the next video we'll be diving into the spacex starship and its mission to mars if you'd like to keep 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