Voyager 2

Voyager 2 is a space probe. It was used by NASA to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.  It is the only spacecraft that has come near to Uranus and Neptune.  Because of this, most pictures of these two ice planets are from this spacecraft.  It was identical in form to its sister space probe, Voyager 1.  The space probe is currently moving away from the Solar System. It is heading out into interstellar space.

Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977. It is now in an extended mission. Its encounter with the largest natural satellite of Neptune, Triton sent it on a hyperbolic trajectory out of the Solar System. It was moving at about . This is much faster than escape velocity.

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 hold the Voyager Golden Record. This is a recording of sounds and images of life on Earth.  It was designed by a team led by Carl Sagan. The Golden Record is to communicate with extraterrestrial life.

Voyager 2 is the second spacecraft to exit from the Solar System and enter into the interstellar space. It did so 6 years after Voyager 1. In 2018, NASA said that Voyager 2 had reached the heliopause on 5 November 2018. On July 18, 2023, Voyager 2 overtook Pioneer 10 to become the 2nd farthest spacecraft from the Sun, at a distance of 133.917 AU (nearly 12.45 billion miles or approximately 2034.00 billion km) from the Sun.  

Related pages
 Pioneer 10
 Pioneer 11
 Voyager 1
 Exploration of Neptune

References

Other websites
 NASA Voyager website
 Voyager Spacecraft Lifetime
 Voyager 2 Mission Profile  by NASA's Solar System Exploration
 Spacecraft Escaping the Solar System  - current positions and diagrams
 Mission state
 VOYAGER RECENT 6-HOUR HISTORY 
 Voyager 2 Detects Odd Shape of Solar System's Edge  23 May 2006

Category:Voyager program
Category:Spacecraft launched in the 1970s