South Bend, August 10, 1989
Voyager 2 is Approaching Neptune
After a 12 year journey through space, the spacecraft Voyager 2 is approaching Neptune, the outermost of the four giant planets in the solar system. Voyager 2 had flown by Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, and Uranus in January 1986 [see entry of January 22, 1986], sending pictures back to Earth. Now, also pictures of Neptune are expected. Neptune’s distance from Earth is on average 4.5 billion km, or 2.8 billion mi. Radio signals from Voyager 2 near Neptune take about 4 hours to reach Earth. While Neptune’s revolution around the Sun takes 165 years, the planet rotates every 16 hours.
[Saturday], August 26, 1989
Neptune Fever
Not since the landing on the Moon 20 years ago, has a space program stirred up such enthusiasm as the pictures, which the spacecraft Voyager 2 is sending from Neptune back to Earth. A real Neptune fever has broken out. In the night of Thursday to Friday, Voyager 2 flew by close to the North Pole of Neptune and then aimed at Triton, Neptune’s largest Moon. The pictures which are now televised by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are indeed exciting. Even the scientists at the ground station reacted with outbursts of enthusiasm. Neptune appeared on television screens as a blue, cold planet (temperatures of -353 degrees F, or -214 degrees C), on which a powerful storm is raging. The planet has a thin atmosphere mostly of methane. The Moon Triton showed active volcanoes. Furthermore, 6 new moons and 5 rings that orbit Neptune were discovered. Voyager 2 is now continuing its journey beyond the solar system. The spacecraft carries with it a gold-plated disc with images of Earth and signals of our civilization. Looking into the far distant future, it carries the hope with it that, on the timeless travel of Voyager 2 through interstellar space, these images and signals will be picked up by another civilization. The fact that Voyager 2 sent images of Neptune back to Earth and has reached the outer limits of our solar system, may explain the extraordinary excitement about this successful enterprise. The precision and technical achievement of the Voyager program are indeed astonishing. It is a major scientific achievement which has tremendously increased our knowledge of the solar system.
[Transl: On the launch of the spacecrafts Voyager 1 and 2 in 1977 and the gold-plated disc they carry, see entry above of November 15, 1980.]