What is Voyager i?

Voyager I is 733 kg of spacecraft that visited Jupiter and Saturn at the end of the 70 and early 80. Currently, it is the farthest object made by man from the ground, with a slightly more than 100 AUS (length-sun length) distant, or about 13 light hours. Currently, in the part of the outer solar system called Heliosheath, where the solar solar wind is compressed and turbulent interaction with interstellar medium. Voyager I is in the area of ​​the Kuiper belt, a huge asteroid belt located behind the orbit of the Neptune.

driven by thermal generators of radioisotopes, voyager I will have sufficient energy to control its tools, up to approximately 2020, at this point in which it will drive. Scientists hope that it will pass at this point completely outside Heliosheath, which gives them the first reading interstellar medium.

Voyager I has a unique history. Was launched on September 5, 1977 and provided the first with high -resolution of the imagon months of Jupiter and Saturn, including CALLISTO, IO, TITAN, GANYMEDE and many others. It was launched only a month after Voyager II , another interstellar probe that visited gas giants. But since Voyager I benefits more from gravity's assists, it has been significantly faster than Voyager II and will continue for centuries, not for millennia.

In January 1979, only 349,000 kilometers (217,000 miles) from the center of Jupiter passed. Her milestone observation, which on Jupiter's Moon IO appeared volcanic activity, which was not observed by ground telescopes or two other probes that previously visited Jupiter, pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 . Io orbit very close to Jupiter and its geology is highly active because of its proximity to the powerful magnetic field of Jupiter.

In November 1980, Voyager I visited Saturn, his closest access 12 November when you doLO up to 124,000 kilometers (77,000 miles) of saturn cloud peaks. This has done observation of Saturn's rings and months, especially titanium, which has its own atmosphere. Scientists have chosen for Voyager I to approach Titan to observe it, sending it from the elliptics level, which became the last body of the solar system to approach. Her sister spacecraft, Voyager II , completed the planetary Grand Tour and crossed Saturn to visit Uranus and Neptune.