The Voyager 1 space probe, launched by NASA in 1977 to study the outer Solar System and interstellar medium, is now more than 11 billion miles from the sun (the farthest man-made object from Earth), poised to become the first human-made object to reach interstellar space, as it is currently in the outer layer of heliosphere, a sort of bubble of charged particles in the space surrounding the Solar System.
The Voyager 1 and Voyage 2 were the first space probes to provide detailed, colorful images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and their moons. And what fantastic images were these! I remember marveling at these images from the outer planets and their many diverse moons.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot and cloud bands in detail. The white oval storm below the Great Red Spot is the same diameter as the Earth.
A montage of images taken be Voyager probes.
A volcano erupts on Io, the hyper-active moon of Jupiter.
Each Voyager probe carries an audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings in many languages, a medley of sounds and songs. Though it will take about 40,000 years for the probes to pass within 1.6 light years from another star, the placement of the discs symbolize the humankind's mark into the unknown -- where science fact meets science fiction.
For more info: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html
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