The Voyager 2 Story in Photos

Voyager 2 has been in space longer than millennials have been alive. Launched into space in 1977, and still functioning today, the space probe has gone further into the universe than any object or person has before. Here's it's story, in photos.

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This illustration from 1965 shows the predicted trajectories for Voyager 1 and 2, which were launched during a rare alignment of the planets that happens once every 176 years. The trajectories that Voyager 1 and 2 took transported them to outer planets that they wouldn't have been able to access otherwise. Jupiter and Saturn gave them both 'gravity assists', which is an extra boost from being pulled into the planet's gravitational pull, then swung out again. Both Voyagers took slightly different paths than planned.

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Engineers working on Voyager 2 in 1977 in California.

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A small American flag and a golden record filled with sounds and pictures - momentos from Earth.

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Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded the Voyagers, both carried small metal plaques like this one. Engraved on the surface are instructions for playing the golden record, which contains sounds and images from Earth.

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Voyager 2 before being attached to it's launch vehicle at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

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Voyager 2 launching on 20th August 1977.

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An amazing photo of Io, one of Jupiter's moons, floating in front of the giant planet. This picture was taken by Voyager 2 on 1979, at a distance of 8 miles away.

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This is the first ever look at Jupiter's satellite moon Europa. Taken in 1979, this photo was captured from 152,000 miles away.

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This incredible photo of Saturn (which has been color-enhanced) was taken in 1981 by Voyager 2. In the bottom left we can also see four of Saturn's moons.

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This is another color-enhanced photo taken of Saturn's rings by Voyager 2. Possible variations in chemical composition from one part of the rings to another may explain the varying colors.

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This image shows Uranus, captured from 7.8 miles away in 1986.

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This photo helped scientists to understand the continuous distribution of small particles throughout the Uranus ring system.

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This is Neptune, captured through the orange and green filters on Voyager 2's narrow angle camera. In this image, we can see the Great Dark Spot and it's neighboring bright smudge.

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This is a reconstruction of two images taken of Neptune with Voyager 2's green and clear filters.

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Carl Sagan and Ed Stone, both Voyager 2 scientists, look at an image of Neptune's moon Triton.

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This is Triton, Neptune's largest moon and one of three known objects in the solar system to have a nitrogen-dominated atmosphere (the others are Earth and Titan, Saturn's giant moon). The blue-green hue in this photo may be fresh nitrogen frost deposits.

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The mission control room in Pasadena on 30th August 2007, when Voyager 2 passed into the heliosheath - approximately 1 billion miles closer to the sun than Voyager 1's route.

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