Voyager 2
Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and enabled further encounters with the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. It remains the only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, and was the third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity, which will allow it to leave the Solar System. It has been sending scientific data to Earth for 46 years, 10 months, 6 days, making it the oldest active space probe.[4] Launched 16 days before its twin Voyager 1, the primary mission of the spacecraft was to study the outer planets and its extended mission is to study interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere.
Mission type
Planetary exploration
1977-076A[2]
10271[2]
- 46 years, 10 months, 6 days elapsed
- Planetary mission: 12 years, 1 month, 12 days
- Interstellar mission: 34 years, 8 months, 25 days elapsed
721.9 kilograms (1,592 lb)[3]
470 watts (at launch)
August 20, 1977, 14:29:00 UTC
July 9, 1979
570,000 kilometers (350,000 mi)
August 26, 1981
101,000 km (63,000 mi)
January 24, 1986
81,500 km (50,600 mi)
August 25, 1989
4,951 km (3,076 mi)
Voyager 2 successfully fulfilled its primary mission of visiting the Jovian system in 1979, the Saturnian system in 1981, Uranian system in 1986, and the Neptunian system in 1989. The spacecraft is now in its extended mission of studying the interstellar medium. It is at a distance of 136.1 AU (20.4 billion km; 12.7 billion mi) from Earth as of June 2024.[5]
The probe entered the interstellar medium on November 5, 2018, at a distance of 119.7 AU (11.1 billion mi; 17.9 billion km) from the Sun[6] and moving at a velocity of 15.341 km/s (34,320 mph)[7] relative to the Sun. Voyager 2 has left the Sun's heliosphere and is traveling through the interstellar medium, though still inside the Solar System, joining Voyager 1, which had reached the interstellar medium in 2012.[8][9][10][11] Voyager 2 has begun to provide the first direct measurements of the density and temperature of the interstellar plasma.[12]
Voyager 2 remains in contact with Earth through the NASA Deep Space Network.[13] Communications are the responsibility of Australia's DSS 43 communication antenna, located near Canberra.[14]
Trajectory of Voyager 2 primary mission
Plot of Voyager 2's heliocentric velocity against its distance from the Sun, illustrating the use of gravity assists to accelerate the spacecraft by Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.[A]
![Plot of Voyager 2's heliocentric velocity against its distance from the Sun, illustrating the use of gravity assists to accelerate the spacecraft by Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.[A]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Voyager_2_velocity_vs_distance_from_sun.svg/200px-Voyager_2_velocity_vs_distance_from_sun.svg.png)
Future of the probe[edit]
The probe is expected to keep transmitting weak radio messages until at least the mid-2020s, more than 48 years after it was launched.[107] NASA says that "The Voyagers are destined—perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way."[108]
Voyager 2 is not headed toward any particular star, although in roughly 42,000 years, it will pass the star Ross 248 at a distance of 1.7 light-years.[109][110] If undisturbed for 296,000 years, Voyager 2 should pass by the star Sirius at a distance of 4.3 light-years.[111]