Saturn was Voyager 2's second stop in its Grand Tour of the outer solar system, taking advantage of a rare planetary alignment to visit the four giant outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Its flight path at Saturn was dictated primarily by the desire to continue on to Uranus, but the timing was chosen to provide close looks at several Saturnian satellites, including Enceladus, Tethys, Hyperion, Iapetus, Phoebe, and several others. Voyager 2 flew by Saturn's cloudtops at a distance of 100,800 kilometers (62,600 miles), and returned more sensitve images of jet streams and storms in the atmosphere. Ultraviolet emissions in the upper atmosphere at high latitudes may be connected to auroral activity.

Voyager 2 also took a closer look at some of the ring features found by Voyager 1. At the busiest time of the encounter, a serious problem developed with the steerable platform on which its optical instruments are mounted. This resulted in the loss of some of the highest resolution data about Tethys and the rings of Saturn. Fortunately, by the time the spacecraft reached Uranus 4-1/2 years later, lubricant had migrated back into the gear trains, permitting normal usage of the scan platform at somewhat conservative speeds, so that all of the science objectives at Uranus could be met. Following its encounter with Saturn, Voyager 2 continued on to Uranus and Neptune, and today continues its journey toward interstellar space, diving below the ecliptic plane.

Key Dates

Status: Headed to Interstellar Space

Link: Voyager News

Source: NASA