36 years of double travel

Among people associated with astronomy or scientific journalism, this has already become a kind of joke:

-You heard, the “Voyager”, ours-once again left the solar system !!!

- What are you saying, is it the fifth time or in the sixth?

Indeed, such news appeared repeatedly. Different groups of scientists reported that in their opinion, already. And then other scientists refuted this news. However, in mid -September, the NASA team for the first time officially stated - from August 25 - yes. Of course, there are objects in the solar system and further than 125 astronomical units (Fig. 1), on which the Voyager-1 probe has moved from the Sun (even if not talking about the hypothetical cloud of Oort), however, the character of the surrounding space of the space now corresponds to the interstellar, and the “Voyager” does not blow the sunny, but the star wind.

Using this case, the TRV-Hawn decided to recall the main milestones of the “Voyagers” mission, one of the most exciting and successful space programs of mankind.

1977 - the launch of the expedition took place in late August - early September. At the same time, Voyager-2 was the first to start on August 20, the Titan-III launch vehicle with the Higher block “Centaurus” sent Voyager-2 into space (Fig. 2). Voyager-1 started on September 5. He initially flew only to two planets - Jupiter and Saturn, so he flew along a less economical, but shorter highway. By the way, the devices carried on board not only scientific equipment, but also a golden disk with a message to extraterrestrial civilizations (Fig. 3).

1979 - both apparatus fly Jupiter, making a gravitational maneuver. Among other things, for the first time, the largest planet is studied at close range (Fig. 4). The Voyagers saw a weak ring near the planet (Fig. 5), volcanoes on IO (Fig. 6), photographed the famous large red spot from close range (Fig. 7), discovered three new satellites - adraste, Theve and methyd.

1980-1981-Saturn. Here the devices were divided-the Voyager-1 went up above the plane of the solar system, where there are no planets, and he will take his unique pictures later. Voyager-2, along a more complex trajectory, went to Uranus and Neptune. It was also possible to learn a lot about Saturn - and now these pictures are not so spectacular only because for 9 years Cassini has been working in Saturn's orbit. However, the complex structure of Saturn's rings (Fig. 8) was discovered, many of his companions (Fig. 9 - Dion) photographed closely and opened eight new Saturne satellites precisely the Voyagers.

1986 - Uranus. Voyager-2 so far remains (and in the foreseeable future and will remain) the only apparatus that has visited the vicinity of Uranus and Neptune. Therefore, of course, the scientific value of the data of the device is enormous. For the first time, a high -quality photograph of uranium rings was received (Fig. 10), at the same time two new rings were open. Large satellites, such as Oberon (Fig. 11) and Miranda (Fig. 12) were photographed. Miranda at the same time surprised astronomers with her unexpectedly complex relief. 11 new satellites are also open (Fig. 13).

1989 - Neptune (Fig. 14). This planet also gave many surprises. Voyager confirmed the existence of the rings of Neptune and took their photos (Fig. 15). He discovered six new companions of Neptune and carefully studied the largest companion of Triton (Fig. 16), on which amazing cryovulcans were discovered (Fig. 17-dark spots in the photo, the photo of the volcanoes believe).

But this is not the flow of photographs. In 1990, Voyager-1 took an amazing picture that went down in history as a “family portrait”. Of the several dozen frames, it was possible to assemble a group portrait of the solar system from a distance of 40 astronomical units from the Earth. Mercury and Mars were lit, but the rest of the planets turned out. And on one of the frames of this mosaic - "dull blue point." It was this name that received a picture of the Earth from a distance of 6 billion kilometers (Fig. 18).

The thorium of the "Voyagers" was told by Luxe Paevsky,
which is just two years older than this traveler