A similar Voyager - 2 was launched 16 days earlier. Flying along a longer trajectory on July 9, 1979, the spacecraft reached the planet Jupiter and acquired more detailed information about its surface. Voyager 2 came close to Europa and Ganymede - Galilean satellites, not previously explored by Voyager 1. The more detailed images it took, made it possible to put forward a hypothesis about the existence of a liquid ocean under the surface of Europa. A survey of the largest satellite in the solar system - Ganymede - showed that it is covered with a crust of "dirty" ice, and its surface is much older than the surface of Europa. Observing the satellite Io, the space probe confirmed information about its volcanic activity. On August 25, 1981, the probe was flying past Saturn, collecting information about its temperature and atmospheric density. The trajectory of the probe was near the satellites of Saturn, Tethys (TETIS) and Enceladus (enSEladus) and it transmitted detailed photographs of the surface of the satellites. On January 24, 1986, Voyager - 2 was the first to reach the planet Uranus at a distance of 81.5 thousand km. The probe transmitted thousands of images of Uranus, its satellites and rings. Thanks to these photographs, scientists discovered two new rings and examined those nine rings that had been already known. In addition, 11 new satellites of Uranus were discovered. After examining the pictures of one of the moons - Miranda, it turned out that valleys and mountain ranges lie on the surface, among which rocky cliffs could be noticed. This suggests that the history of the moon is rich in tectonic and thermal phenomena. On August 24, 1989, Voyager 2 was the first to reach the planet Neptune. It obtained unique images of Neptune and its large satellite Triton. Active geysers were discovered on Triton, which was very unexpected for a cold satellite that is remote from the Sun. 4 new satellites were discovered. Voyager 2 discovered the previously unknown rings of Neptune. The probe, after completing the main mission continued its flight with the increasing speed. On August 30, 2007, the probe reached the boundary of the shock wave and entered the heliopause zone. On December 10, 2018, NASA confirmed that Voyager 2 crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space. The probe remains within the solar system, the gravitational boundary of which lies beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, a collection of small objects under the gravitational influence of the Sun. It is assumed that the spacecraft will maintain communication with the Earth until 2025; a case with a gold record was also installed inside the probe. According to NASA researchers, Voyager - 2 may continue its flight for hundreds of thousands of years ...Teksty umieszczone na naszej stronie są własnością wytwórni, wykonawców, osób mających do nich prawa.
