animation of Voyager 2's path across the solar system, including the outer planets that it visited (Mars is not shown) The animation shows Voyager 2 making close flybys and gravity slingshots around Jupiter (Mar 1979), Saturn (Nov 1980), Uranus (Jan 1986), and Neptune (Aug 1989) between 1977 and 1989, and then its accelerated path past Neptune up until 2000 where it leaves the frame Made by Phoenix7777, published under CC BY-SA 4.0

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   zrb (zrb@astrodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 21-Nov-2024 03:41:28 JST zrb

   some dude at JPL noticed in 1964 that, starting in the late 70s, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune would all align in such a way that a space probe, if launched in August 1977 with a specific velocity, would be able to make close gravity assists of all of them in succession

   Thirteen years later, #Voyager1 and #Voyager2 launched from Cape Canaveral Florida, loaded with cameras, magnetometers, and plasma detectors. This animation shows the gravity assists that Voyager 2 made between 1977 and 1989, and then its accelerated path outwards up until 2000 where it leaves the frame.

   47 years later, Voyager 1 and 2 are still out there, sending faint signals back to Earth (though many of their instruments are now either failing or shut down to conserve power as the plutonium generators run out of heat).