NEWS & FEATURES
35 Years On, Voyager's Legacy Continues at Saturn
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn 35 years ago. The Cassini mission has followed up on many of Voyager's discoveries.
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Voyager Mission Celebrates 30 Years Since Uranus
Looking back at the first and only encounter with this mysterious planet (so far).
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Voyager 1 Helps Solve Interstellar Medium Mystery
A study provides new insights about the magnetic field of the interstellar medium, using data from Voyager 1 and other spacecraft.
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'Pale Blue Dot' Images Turn 25
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft showed its love for the solar system, including Earth, with these images on Feb. 14, 2015.
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NASA Voyager: 'Tsunami Wave' Still Flies Through Interstellar Space
The "tsunami wave" that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft began experiencing earlier this year is still propagating outward, according to new results.
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25 Years After Neptune: Reflections on Voyager
August 25, 1989: Neptune is in view. It is the middle of the night and everything is happening fast at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
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NASA Voyager Statement About Solar Wind Models
NASA's Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone responds to an alternate model for the interaction between the heliosphere and the interstellar medium.
› read moreMISSION OVERVIEW
The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. Continuing on their more-than-37-year journey since their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the sun than Pluto. In August 2012, Voyager 1 made the historic entry into interstellar space, the region between stars, filled with material ejected by the death of nearby stars millions of years ago. Scientists hope to learn more about this region when Voyager 2, in the "heliosheath" -- the outermost layer of the heliosphere where the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar medium -- also reaches interstellar space. Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network, or DSN.
The primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn. After making a string of discoveries there -- such as active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and intricacies of Saturn's rings -- the mission was extended. Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited those outer planets. The adventurers' current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun's domain. And beyond. › read more
VOYAGER 1
- DISTANCE
- FROM EARTH
- DISTANCE
- FROM THE SUN
- ROUNDTRIP LIGHT
- TIME FROM THE EARTH
- (hh:mm:ss)
VOYAGER 2
- DISTANCE
- FROM EARTH
- DISTANCE
- FROM THE SUN
- ROUNDTRIP LIGHT
- TIME FROM THE EARTH
- (hh:mm:ss)
Question: Are the distance counters rolling backwards?
Answer: Often they are, and it's actually not an error. This is caused by the fact that Earth moves around the sun more quickly than either Voyager spacecraft is departing from Earth. So, at certain times of the year, the distance between Earth and each Voyager actually decreases.
