Neptune

Voyager 2 Mission

The Voyager 2 mission to Neptune was a landmark event in space exploration. Launched on August 20, 1977, Voyager 2 took advantage of a rare planetary alignment to visit the gas and ice giants, using their gravity to slingshot from one to the next. After twelve years, it reached Neptune on August 25, 1989, capturing images and data that revealed surprising details about the planet.

Despite being so far away from the sun, the atmosphere of Neptune had the strongest winds in the solar system, three times stronger than Jupiter and nine times greater than the strongest wind seen on Earth.

--- Gary Arndt

Voyager 2's flyby mission allowed it to take unprecedented risks, leading to the discovery of Neptune's magnetic field, additional rings, and six new moons 1.

   

Major Discoveries

Among the major discoveries of Voyager 2's encounter with Neptune was the planet's largest moon, Triton. Triton, which comprises 99.5% of the mass of Neptune's moons, has a surface of frozen nitrogen and water ice, and a weak atmosphere of nitrogen gas from erupting geysers. Voyager 2 managed to photograph about 40% of Triton's surface during its brief flyby.

There are several proposals on the table for future missions to Neptune, but so far none of them have been approved.

--- Gary Arndt

Future missions to Neptune, such as the Triton hopper and Neptune Odyssey, aim to further explore this distant world, but none have been approved yet 2.