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Voyager 1
Voyager.jpg
A NASA artist's rendition of a Voyager spacecraft
Organization: NASA
Mission type: Fly-by
Flyby of: Jupiter, Saturn
Launch date: September 5, 1977
Launch vehicle: Titan III-E Centaur rocket
NSSDC ID: 1977-076A
Webpage: NASA Voyager website
Mass: 721.9 kg
Power: 420 W
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Voyager 1 is a spacecraft used by NASA to explore Jupiter and Saturn. It is identical in form to its sister ship, Voyager 2. It was actually sent to study the outer planets of the Solar System, but is now in an extended mission.

Voyager 1 is now out of the Solar System. Its research team announced the exit on 25 August 2012. Voyager 1 has already reached interstellar space after going through the final area which was a magnetic field.

Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977.

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 include the Voyager Golden Record, which is a recording of sounds and images of life on earth. The sounds are almost out of all languages spoken in Earth. It was designed by a team headed by Carl Sagan to communicate with extraterrestrial life.

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Images for kids

  • Titan 3E with Voyager 1

    Voyager 1 lifted off with a Titan IIIE

  • A set of grey squares trace roughly left to right. A few are labeled with single letters associated with a nearby coloured square. J is near to a square labeled Jupiter; E to Earth; V to Venus; S to Saturn; U to Uranus; N to Neptune. A small spot appears at the centre of each coloured square

    The Family Portrait of the Solar System acquired by Voyager 1

  • Pale Blue Dot

    The Pale Blue Dot image showing Earth from 6 billion kilometers appearing as a tiny dot (the blueish-white speck approximately halfway down the brown band to the right) within the darkness of deep space

  • Interstellar probes (cropped)

    Voyager 1 and the other probes that are in or on their way to interstellar space

  • Voyager 1 Radio Signal 21 Feb 2013

    Image of Voyager 1's radio signal on February 21, 2013

  • The Sounds of Earth - GPN-2000-001976

    Voyager Golden Record

  • Voyager Program - RTG diagram 1

    Diagram of RTG fuel container, showing the plutonium-238 oxide spheres

  • Voyager Program - RTG diagram 2

    Diagram of RTG shell, showing the power-producing silicon-germanium thermocouples

  • Voyager Program - RTG upclose

    Model of an RTG unit

  • The Great Red Spot as seen from Voyager 1

    Jupiter's Great Red Spot, an anticyclonic storm larger than Earth, as seen from Voyager 1

  • View of lava flows radiating from the volcano Ra Patera on Io

    View of sulfur-rich lava flows radiating from the volcano Ra Patera on Io

  • Europa as seen from Voyager 1 at a distance of 2.8 million km

    Europa's lineated but uncratered face, evidence of currently active geology, at a distance of 2.8 million km.

  • Icy surface of Ganymede as photographed from 253,000 km

    Ganymede's tectonically disrupted surface, marked with bright impact sites, from 253,000 km.

  • View of Saturn lit from the right. Saturn's globe casts its shadow over the rings to the left. Part of the lower hemisphere can be seen through the rings. Some of the spoke-like ring features are visible as bright patches.

    Crescent Saturn from 5.3 million km, four days after closest approach

  • Voyager 1 image of Saturn's F Ring

    Voyager 1 image of Saturn's narrow, twisted and braided F Ring.

  • Mimas at a range of 425,000 km from Voyager 1

    Mimas at a range of 425,000 km; the crater Herschel is at upper right

  • Tethys photographed by Voyager 1 from 1.2 million km

    Tethys, with its giant rift valley Ithaca Chasma, from 1.2 million km.

  • Fractured terrain on Dione imaged from a distance of 240,000 km from Voyager 1

    Fractured 'wispy terrain' on Dione's trailing hemisphere.

  • Impact craters on the surface of Rhea appear similar to Earth's Moon

    The icy surface of Rhea is nearly saturated with impact craters.

  • Cream-colored section of a disk is separated from the black space above by a fuzzy blue curve

    Titan's thick haze layer is shown in this enhanced Voyager 1 image.

  • orange coloured area at bottom right is separated from black space at upper left by diagonal series of blue bands

    Layers of haze, composed of complex organic compounds, covering Saturn's satellite Titan.

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