Not the same kind of anniversary, but bigger than yesterday's - at least to me, because it's a mission that I think is one of the greatest accomplishments in human history.
On July 9, 1979, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Jupiter. Forty-six years ago today, it came within 354,000 miles of the giant planet's cloud tops.
Voyager 2 launched August 20, 1977 weeks before its partner in interstellar space Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977, and beat Voyager 2 to Jupiter, arriving in March of '79. Voyager 2 discovered rings around Jupiter. Both Voyager probes spotted volcanoes erupting on Jupiter's moon, Io.
Voyager 2 took longer to reach Jupiter than its sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, but also got to visit Uranus and Neptune. This made it the only spacecraft to visit either of the ice giants.
Over the years, I've written many pieces on the Voyagers, pretty much whenever a news article shows up. As we're approaching the 48th anniversary of their launches, it's almost always about a new problem that has surfaced or how the previous new problem was resolved (latest post like this). Among the ones I return to regularly is 2017's “Meet The Crew Retiring Along with Voyagers 1 and 2.” I could almost quote large chunks of that post - one that's longer than most of what I post, I like it that much. So let me conclude with a photo taken by Voyager 2 10 days before its closest approach to Jupiter, from the JPL site that updates on both Voyagers regularly.
This color composite from Voyager 2 shows the Great Red Spot, Jupiter's
iconic, long-lived storm, during the late Jovian afternoon. North of the Red
Spot lies a curious darker section of the South Equatorial Belt (SEB), the
belt in which the Red Spot is located. A bright eruption of material passing
from the SEB northward into the diffuse equatorial clouds has been observed on
all occasions when this feature passes north of the Red Spot. The remnants of
one such eruption are apparent in this photograph. To the lower left of the
Red Spot lies one of the three long-lived White Ovals.
This photograph was taken on June 29, 1979, when Voyager 2 was nearly 6
million miles (9 million kilometers) from Jupiter. The smallest features
visible are more than 106 miles (170 kilometers) across.
Image credit: NASA/JPL [Bold added: SiG]
I have to remind myself that the Red Spot is larger than our Earth
ReplyDeleteAnd will one day go away.
DeleteI thought I remembered reading that people were saying it looks smaller now and some are saying it's going away now. A quick search engine dive shows some are saying it might be gone withing 20 years. Articles on Space.com, Ars Technica and even NASA Space News, a year ago (well, August).
DeleteI think I remember reading similar things all my life. It seems to get bigger and smaller, more and less red. Sorta like, you know, every big storm we've ever seen.