Voyager 2:
Saturn was Voyager 2's second
stop in its 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. Its flight path at
Saturn was dictated primarily by the desire to continue on to Uranus, but the timing was
chosen to provide close looks at several Saturnian satellites, including
Enceladus,
Tethys,
Hyperion,
Iapetus,
Phoebe, and several
others. Voyager 2 flew by Saturn's cloudtops at a distance of 100,800 kilometers (62,600
miles), and returned more sensitve images of jet streams and storms in the atmosphere.
Ultraviolet emissions in the upper atmosphere at high latitudes may be connected to
auroral activity. Voyager 2 also took a closer look at some of the ring features found by
Voyager 1. At the busiest time of the encounter, a serious
problem developed with the steerable platform on which its optical instruments are
mounted. This resulted in the loss of some of the highest resolution data about Tethys and
the
rings of Saturn. Fortunately, by
the time the spacecraft reached Uranus 4-1/2 years later, lubricant had migrated back
into the gear trains, permitting normal usage of the scan platform at somewhat
conservative speeds, so that all of the science objectives at Uranus could be met.
Following its encounter with Saturn, Voyager 2 continued on to Uranus and Neptune, and
today continues its journey toward interstellar space, diving below the ecliptic plane.
Visit the Voyager 2 Website
