Voyager 2:
Voyager 2's exciting flyby of
Neptune capped the historic
Grand Tour of the outer solar system, taking advantage of a rare planetary alignment to
visit the four giant outer planets
Jupiter,
Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune over the
course of 12 years. Voyager 2 skimmed the north pole of Neptune by a mere 4800
kilometers (3000 miles), and determined basic characteristics of Neptune and its largest
moon
Triton: color, cloud-top
features, size, mass, composition, temperature, and rotation rate. Voyager 2 found six new
Neptunian moons and three new rings plus a broad sheet of
ring material. Unexpectedly,
geysers of gaseous nitrogen were found on the largest moon, Triton. Neptune's magnetic
field also confounded: tilted 47 degrees with respect to the rotational axis, and offset from
the center of the planet by half the planet's radius. Voyager 2's flight path past Neptune
sent the spacecraft diving below the ecliptic plane, where it continues its search today for
the heliopause (the boundary between the
Sun's influence and interstellar
space).
Visit the Voyager 2 Website
