{"id":211456,"date":"2025-01-09T11:30:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T11:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/09\/the-biggest-discoveries-of-voyagers-nasas-most-distant-explorers\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T11:30:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T11:30:51","slug":"the-biggest-discoveries-of-voyagers-nasas-most-distant-explorers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/09\/the-biggest-discoveries-of-voyagers-nasas-most-distant-explorers\/","title":{"rendered":"The biggest discoveries of Voyagers \u2014 NASA\u2019s most distant explorers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"592\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@2x.png?resize=592,240&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"The biggest discoveries of Voyagers \u2014 NASA\u2019s most distant explorers\" title=\"The biggest discoveries of Voyagers \u2014 NASA\u2019s most distant explorers\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n<p>In 1977, NASA loaded two spacecraft, each the size of a Honda Civic, into a rocket and sent them off on a five-year mission to explore our solar system\u2019s outer planets.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text alignright\"\/>\n<p>Named Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, these twin craft were designed to fly past Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus on their way out of our solar system. Along their journeys, they would send data and images to Earth. And just in case these craft ran into another intelligent species, each also carried a <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/voyager\/golden-record-contents\/\" rel=\"noopener\">gold-plated record that contained information and sounds representing humanity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to their sturdy technology and smart engineering, these spacecraft are now nearing their 50th birthdays. And they more than met their goals. For more than five years now, both craft have been sailing beyond our solar system. Still at work, these most distant explorers are now bringing back to Earth details of previously uncharted interstellar space.<\/p>\n<p>What they\u2019ve seen along the way has transformed what we know about our solar system. Tending to these aged spacecraft and watching what they discover has also helped us understand our place in the universe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve turned what started out as a very exciting planetary mission of discovery into an expedition of humanity,\u201d says Bill Kurth. He\u2019s a space physicist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He started working on the Voyager mission in 1974 as a graduate student. Today, he still works on Voyager instruments that study <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-space-weather\">space weather<\/a>, or how conditions in space change due to activity on the sun\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n<p>To celebrate Voyager\u2019s unexpected legacy, let\u2019s take a look at the mission\u2019s biggest science moments to date.<\/p>\n<section class=\"newsletter-signup__wrapper___lZ0W1 wp-block-house-ads wp-block-newsletter-signup\">\n<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@1x.png 1x,&#10;&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.png 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@1x.png 1x,&#10;&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@2x.png 2x\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<div class=\"newsletter-signup__container___srNOL\" data-component=\"newsletter-signup\">\n<h3 class=\"newsletter-signup__heading___0EHmb\">\n\t\t\tEducators and Parents, Sign Up for The Cheat Sheet\t\t<\/h3>\n<div class=\"newsletter-signup__message___pemaq\">\n<p>Weekly updates to help you use <em>Science News Explores<\/em> in the learning environment<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"newsletter-signup__thankyou___K6GGN\">Thank you for signing up!<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-signup__error___hCsJI\">There was a problem signing you up.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. First close-up photos of the outer planets<\/h2>\n<p>Until Voyager, scientists knew little about our solar system\u2019s outer planets.<\/p>\n<p>In 1610, Galileo identified the first four of what would turn out to be Jupiter\u2019s 95 moons. But it wasn\u2019t until Voyager 1 and 2 flew past Jupiter in 1979 \u2014 then Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus in later years \u2014 that we finally saw these planets in all their glory.<\/p>\n<p>Pictures from Voyager revealed our solar system in technicolor. \u201cIt really opened our eyes to the outer solar system,\u201d Kurth says. This also prompted specific questions about how these giant-planet systems work, he says. It planted the seeds for follow-up missions to understand Jupiter\u2019s composition and to better study Saturn\u2019s 146 moons (more than any other planet).<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. A pale blue dot<\/h2>\n<p>Most of Voyager\u2019s discoveries taught us about the solar system beyond Earth. But they also hinted at what it means to be human. In some of the last photographs that Voyager 1 took before leaving our planetary environment, it turned its eye toward home one last time.<\/p>\n<p>Voyager 1 snapped a photo of a tiny, pale blue dot \u2014 Earth \u2014 almost obscured by space dust. \u201cLook again at that dot. That\u2019s here. That\u2019s home. That\u2019s us,\u201d astronomer Carl Sagan wrote about the image in his 1994 book, <em>Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space<\/em>. \u201cOn it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives \u2026 on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Volcanoes on Io<\/h2>\n<p>Before the Voyager mission, scientists had assumed that moons of all planets would resemble ours. Our moon is beautiful, but there\u2019s nothing happening on its surface.<\/p>\n<p>So scientists were surprised when Voyager\u2019s flyby of Jupiter revealed active volcanoes on the surface of its moon Io. This confirmed suspicions from radio scientists in the 1950s about Io\u2019s role in Jupiter\u2019s system, Kurth says. Researchers have continued studying Io and found it to be a major player in Jupiter\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt deposits approximately one ton per second of material from these volcanoes into the magnetic bubble around Jupiter. That drives the workings of Jupiter\u2019s entire system,\u201d he notes. For instance, because of its interaction with Jupiter\u2019s magnetic field, Io creates a huge electric current that sparks lightning in Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>This discovery showed scientists that a moon could be \u201cjust about anything,\u201d adds Linda Spilker. She\u2019s also been part of Voyager\u2019s journey since she was a graduate student 1977. Today she\u2019s the mission\u2019s Project Scientist. A planetary scientist, she works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Rings around the outer planets<\/h2>\n<p>The Voyager mission was the first to send home breathtaking images of ring systems surrounding Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.<\/p>\n<p>Saturn\u2019s enormous rings were discovered in the 1600s by Galileo using a telescope. But Jupiter\u2019s narrow rings were unknown until Voyager 1 flew by them in 1979.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image  has-alignleft\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"462\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/680_Voyager_Legacy_Uranus-462x450.png\" alt=\"a black, white, and gray image of a section of Uranus's rings streaked with background stars (small white diagonal lines)\" class=\"wp-image-3148303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/680_Voyager_Legacy_Uranus-462x450.png 462w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/680_Voyager_Legacy_Uranus-393x383.png 393w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/680_Voyager_Legacy_Uranus-191x186.png 191w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/680_Voyager_Legacy_Uranus-595x580.png 595w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/680_Voyager_Legacy_Uranus.png 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 462px) 100vw, 462px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3148303\">A shot captured by Voyager 2 over a 96-second exposure shows Uranus\u2019 rings with streaks of background stars.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3148303\">JPL-Caltech\/NASA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>And while Saturn\u2019s icy rings were well known, Voyager 1 and 2\u2019s flybys captured them in detail for the first time. Voyager 2 flew so close to this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-gas-giant\">gas giant\u2019s<\/a> rings that the mission team detected hundreds of tiny impacts per second. These were tiny dust grains from the rings bombarding the craft. But don\u2019t worry, Kurth says. The spacecraft escaped unharmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As the Voyagers flew by Uranus, Spilker remembers receiving photos of the rings from a side hidden from Earth. In this photo, the rings were backlit by the sun. \u201cIt was spectacular,\u201d Spilker says. \u201cIt showed us all the dust lanes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And though researchers had suspected Neptune, too, might host rings, confirmation of that didn\u2019t emerge until late August 1989. That\u2019s when Voyager 2 \u2014 then nearly 2.9 billion miles from Earth \u2014 sent home the first images of this planet\u2019s two main rings. Another two also orbit this planet, an ice giant.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Lightning on Jupiter<\/h2>\n<p>Voyager\u2019s discovery of lightning on Jupiter was the first time lightning had ever been observed beyond Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Voyager 1 initially detected a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-radio-waves-definition-pronunciation\">radio-wave<\/a> emission called a whistler. This is caused by atmospheric lightning, Kurth says. The spacecraft picked up these radio waves when it looked back at the night side of Jupiter. The craft then \u201csaw splotches of light,\u201d Kurth said. This is \u201cwhere lightning below the clouds had lit the clouds above the lightning stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. Understanding the Great Spots of Jupiter and Neptune<\/h2>\n<p>Voyager also sent home images of huge storms on Jupiter and Neptune. They appeared as big spots.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomers first observed the Great Red Spot on Jupiter hundreds of years ago. Its Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system and is almost twice the size of Earth! When Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter, it saw that the storm was still raging.<\/p>\n<p>Jupiter\u2019s storm may be the oldest and largest, but a storm on Neptune has the strongest winds. This storm was called the Great Dark Spot. Voyager 2 was the first to photograph it in August 1989.<\/p>\n<p>In its flyby, Voyager 2 measured wind speeds from Neptune\u2019s storm to be up to 2,400 kilometers per hour (1,500 miles per hour). On Earth, uneven heat from the sun tends to spur winds. But on Neptune, Spilker says, heat from the planet itself might be driving these winds.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Neptune lacks a surface. \u201cSo there\u2019s no mountains or valleys to slow the wind down,\u201d she explains. Exactly how the winds work remains unknown. \u201cWe\u2019re really not sure exactly why Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7. Lunar oceans<\/h2>\n<p>Voyager discovered that two moons in our outer solar system could host oceans on their surfaces \u2014 Jupiter\u2019s moon <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/europas-watery-underworld\">Europa<\/a> and Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus. The spacecraft picked up on the icy surfaces of the two moons, Spilker says. \u201cIt set the stage for the discovery that these worlds actually have liquid-water oceans under their surfaces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These first finds paved the way for future missions to Enceladus, including Cassini, which Spilker also worked on. In 2017, Cassini discovered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/somethings-cooking-saturns-moon\">hydrothermal vents on its surface<\/a>. \u201cBecause thermal vents on Earth can have colonies of life, we wonder perhaps [if there\u2019s also] life in the oceans of these worlds,\u201d she says. A mission looking to better understand Europa\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/europa-clipper\" rel=\"noopener\">oceans launched October 14, 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">8. Geysers on Triton<\/h2>\n<p>One of Spilker\u2019s fondest memories from working on Voyager was receiving images of Neptune\u2019s moon, Triton. The Triton data arrived late at night, she recalls. \u201cDuring the two or three days around closest approach, I put a sleeping bag under my desk on the floor. I would just sleep there because I didn\u2019t want to miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During its 1989 flyby of Neptune, Voyager 2 was the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/strange-neptune\">to observe geysers on the moon\u2019s surface<\/a> shooting 8 kilometers (5 miles) high. On Earth, the Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone National Park spurts less than 60 meters (200 feet) high.<\/p>\n<p>The flyby images would appear on small TVs line by line, Spilker says. \u201cI remember watching those first pictures come back,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was just so exciting to know I\u2019m seeing data from this world that we really don\u2019t know much about.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">9. Entering interstellar space<\/h2>\n<p>Voyager 1 and 2 sailed past their final planet, Neptune, in 1989. But their mission was far from over.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next several decades, the spacecraft made their way to the edge of our solar system. Both have now entered interstellar space \u2014 Voyager 1 in 2012 and Voyager 2 in 2018 \u2014 which is a place they were never designed to visit. In fact, this was the first time that any spacecraft had explored so far from Earth.<\/p>\n<p>As its name suggests, interstellar space is the area between stars. People tend to think of it as empty. But it\u2019s actually full of charged particles, atoms, molecules and plenty of dust.<\/p>\n<p>So far, the Voyager spacecraft have had smooth sailing through interstellar space. But Voyager now faces new risks far, far from home. This includes radiation, notes Jamie Rankin. She\u2019s a space physicist at Princeton University in New Jersey. Rankin joined the team as a graduate student in 2012. That was just days after Voyager 1 entered interstellar space. She\u2019s now working alongside Spilker as one of Voyager\u2019s project scientists.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-cosmic-rays-definition-pronunciation\">Cosmic rays<\/a> are high-energy particles that whizz through space at nearly the speed of light, and they\u2019re much more abundant in interstellar space than in our solar neighborhood. \u201cOn Earth, galactic cosmic rays are heavily shielded by the sun,\u201d Rankin says. But \u201cthere are a lot more of those out there where the Voyagers are. Some cosmic ray might hit a [computer] chip and fry it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, Rankin notes, the Voyagers\u2019 age actually provides an advantage in dealing with these rays. Because their computer technology is so old \u2014 and therefore large \u2014 it can survive more hits than newer technology can.<\/p>\n<p>Alan Cummings, another veteran team member, works at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif. He joined the Voyager mission in 1974 and can boast being the last person to touch both Voyagers before launch. For this cosmic-ray physicist, some of Voyager\u2019s most exciting science is happening now, some 15 billion miles from home.<\/p>\n<p>Cummings didn\u2019t expect all that much from the Voyagers in interstellar space. \u201cI thought it would just be the same every day. But that didn\u2019t turn out to be right.\u201d The curious incoming data included measurements of magnetic fields and the density of plasma in space. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-plasma\">Plasma<\/a> is a state of matter containing charged particles.<\/p>\n<p>In the last five years, the spacecrafts\u2019 measurements of magnetic field strength and plasma density have spiked. That suggests that Voyager is exploring an unknown region of space, Kurth says. The unexpected measurements may be related to the sun\u2019s activity.<\/p>\n<p>And although it\u2019s widely accepted that both Voyagers have entered interstellar space, work is ongoing to understand where exactly that is. The definition of what boundary the craft passed is still being written. The <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/ad05d3\" rel=\"noopener\">transition between solar wind and interstellar wind<\/a> is called the heliopause. Research published in early 2024 suggests it may be shaped differently than once believed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis paper offers a mechanism to explain the mystery of why the direction of the magnetic field did not change at the Voyager crossings of the purported heliopause,\u201d explains Cummings. Instead of a thin boundary line as once thought, this new work suggests a thick boundary layer.<\/p>\n<p>Such a layer may form where magnetic fields from the heliosphere and interstellar space interact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVoyager will not be in the \u2018pristine\u2019 interstellar medium until that boundary is crossed. And it is likely 100 or more AU beyond Voyager 1\u2019s present location,\u201d says Kurth. (One AU, or astronomical unit, is 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles.) \u201cThere are aspects of this region yet to be understood.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group cheat-sheet-cta\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Do you have a science question? We can help!<\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/YbhPosFTMqjbSNnV7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Submit your question here<\/a>, and we might answer it an upcoming issue of\u00a0<em>Science News Explores<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">10. Voyager phones home<\/h2>\n<p>Keeping the aging spacecraft running smoothly has required feats of engineering. This was the case in November 2023 when Voyager 1 stopped transmitting readable data back to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Bob Rasmussen, a software engineer at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is part of the team responsible for keeping the Voyager spacecraft up and running. Rasmussen worked on the Voyager mission when it first launched. He came out of retirement in 2022 to help keep the mission going.<\/p>\n<p>A broken memory chip onboard Voyager 1 caused a communications shutdown in 2023. The spacecraft could receive signals but no longer send any back. Despite the urgency of fixing Voyager\u2019s data transmission, the team took its time to work carefully.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll hard problems need to be solved step by step, starting with what you know, and building from there,\u201d Rasmussen says. \u201cWalking our way through this maze took a few months. But we finally figured out what had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It took sending different signals to Voyager to test which parts of the system were working. This task was made especially difficult because the decades-old papers explaining how these systems worked were written by hand or on typewriters. They couldn\u2019t be easily searched.<\/p>\n<p>Also, owing to the craft being 15 billion miles from home, each message took nearly a full Earth day to make a one-way trip. Thanks to the team\u2019s persistence and smart engineering, Voyager 1 started sending usable data again in April 2024.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/voyager\/golden-record-contents\/\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1030\" height=\"579\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1030_Voyager_Legacy_Golden_Record.png\" alt=\"a photo of the Golden Record (an actual record that is golden) sent with Voyager\" class=\"wp-image-3148308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1030_Voyager_Legacy_Golden_Record.png 1030w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1030_Voyager_Legacy_Golden_Record-680x383.png 680w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1030_Voyager_Legacy_Golden_Record-800x450.png 800w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1030_Voyager_Legacy_Golden_Record-330x186.png 330w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1030_Voyager_Legacy_Golden_Record-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3148308\">Voyager 1 and 2 each carry a copy of The Golden Record in case another intelligent species intercepts the spacecraft. The gold-plated record (right) contains information, music and greetings from Earth. The protective cover (left) bears instructions for playing the record.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3148308\">JPL-Caltech\/NASA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The journey continues<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s not clear how much longer we\u2019ll be able to communicate with the Voyager spacecraft. Experts are optimistic that the Voyager mission will make it until the spacecraft celebrate their 50th birthdays in 2027. But their end will eventually come. Sooner or later, their instruments will fail as they reach the end of their working life or the spacecraft no longer have enough power to run them. \u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignleft is-type-rich is-provider-soundcloud wp-block-embed-soundcloud wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Golden Record: Sounds of Earth by NASA\" width=\"500\" height=\"450\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F129030648&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;maxheight=750&amp;maxwidth=500\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Listen to the sounds of Earth as captured on The Golden Record.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2024, for instance, Voyager 2 turned off its plasma-science instrument to conserve power. Voyager 1 is doing a little bit better in terms of available power, Spilker says. Four of the 11 instruments each craft carries are still working.<\/p>\n<p>The end of the Voyager mission will be the end of an era. Many scientists dedicated their careers to these spacecraft and found the mission an opportunity of a lifetime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has been my entire career, [so] I\u2019ll be a little depressed,\u201d Cummings says. \u201cI actually plan to retire [with Voyager].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether the mission continues a few more years or a few more decades, it has left a lasting impact on both the scientific community and the public. \u201cVoyager has been a true pathfinder and explorer,\u201d Spilker says. \u201cIt has really changed our view of not only our own solar system but also of interstellar space.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/voyagers-biggest-discoveries-nasa-space\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1977, NASA loaded two spacecraft, each the size of a Honda Civic, into a rocket and sent them off on a five-year mission to explore our solar system\u2019s outer planets. Named Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, these twin craft were designed to fly past Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus on their way out of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@2x.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[1424,7864,17048,128423,22,33163],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211458,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211456\/revisions\/211458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}