On July 9, 1979, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft came within 404,003 miles (650,180 kilometers) of Jupiter. Launched in August 1977, the Voyager probes were originally planned to study Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 1 arrived at Jupiter in March 1979, and Voyager 2 followed a few months later.
Equipped with narrow- and wide-angle cameras, an interferometer, an ultraviolet spectrometer, a magnetometer, and more, Voyager 2 showed that the Great Red Spot was a storm system and revealed Jupiter’s thin ring system. Its investigations of the gas giant’s moons included confirming active volcanism on the moon Io and taking high-resolution images of Europa that suggested a ocean beneath its icy crust. Its success allowed Voyager 2 to extend its mission, becoming the only spacecraft to perform close-up explorations of Uranus and Neptune before continuing the journey into interstellar space.
Elisa Neckar is senior production editor of Astronomy magazine, and the editor of the Today in the History of Astronomy feature on Astronomy.com.
