From the moment of launch, the Voyager spacecraft have been monitored by
a worldwide tracking system of nine giant antennas strategically located
around the world in California, Spain, and Australia to ensure constant
radio contact with the spacecraft as the Earth rotates. Radio contact
with Voyagers 1 and 2 has not been instantaneous, however. When Voyager
1 flew past Jupiter, radio signals between Earth and the spacecraft took
37 minutes; when Voyager 2 arrived, the signals took 52 minutes because
by then the planet was farther from Earth.
The pictures in this book were taken by a shuttered television-type
camera. Each picture is composed of 640,000 dots, which were converted
into binary numbers before being radioed to Earth. When the signals
reached Earth, they were reconverted by computer into dots and
reassembled into the original image. Most of the color pictures are
composed of three images, each one taken through a different color
filter: blue, orange, or green. The images were combined and the
original color was reconstructed by computer. The computer eliminated
many of the imperfections that crept into the images, and enhanced some
of the images by emphasizing different colors.
Designed to provide a broad spectrum of scientific investigations at
Jupiter, the science instruments investigated atmospheres, satellites,
and magnetospheres. The scientific investigations for the Voyager
mission and their Jovian encounter objectives are shown in the table on
page 40.
After their closest approaches to Jupiter, both spacecraft fired their
thrusters, retargeting for their next goal, the Saturn system.
Scientists will still be studying the wealth of new information about
Jupiter when Voyager 1 reaches Saturn in November 1980, and Voyager 2
follows in August 1981. After Voyager 1 encounters Saturn, Voyager 2 may
be retargeted to fly past Uranus in 1986. Upon completion of their
planetary missions, both spacecraft will search for the outer limit of
the solar wind, that boundary somewhere in our part of the Milky Way
where the influence of the Sun gives way to other stars of the galaxy.
Voyagers 1 and 2 will continue to study interstellar space until the
spacecraft signals can no longer be received.
Scientific Highlights
Some of the most important information gathered by Voyagers 1 and 2 on
the Jovian system is presented pictorially in this book and is
supplemented here with brief summaries of the major discoveries,
observations, and theories.
Jupiter
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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