Zorionak Voyager!

2002/08/20 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Astronautika

One of the most successful missions of the Pier today celebrates 25 years. The Voyager mission was born in 1977 with the aim of deepening Jupiter and Saturn. To do this, two probes were sent with information about these planets, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The mission was expected to last four years. However, scientists extended the mission and also visited Uranus and Neptune in 1986 and 1989 respectively. It is still underway.

During the first 12 years of the mission, the two probes received a lot of absolutely unexpected information. They managed to discover some secrets of four planets and their 48 moons: Impressive winds in Neptune, such as the curls of the rings of Saturn or the volcanoes of the Moon Io of Jupiter.

Now the probes are moving away from our solar system and heading towards helium. The heliopause is the boundary of the area exposed to the sun. From there there there is only interstellar space. And that is the last objective of the probes: to analyze where exactly the heliopause is and how it is.

The probes, through radio waves, send information daily to Earth, but at some point the energy of sending information will be exhausted. When this happens, even though there is no survey on Earth, the probes will continue to travel continuously through interstellar space.

For more information about the mission click here.