NASA plans to test the Big Bang procedure on Voyager 2 in May and June 2026.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 used radioisotope power systems that generate heat and electricity from plutonium decay.
Voyager 1 was launched 16 days after Voyager 2 and later overtook Voyager 2 in trajectory and distance.
When the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Neptune and Uranus in the late 1980s, scientists observed complex magnetic fields with multiple poles that did not align with the planets' rotational axes.
Allen's team argues that a wave-driven acceleration episode at Uranus can reconcile the Voyager 2 data with current models of how magnetospheres respond to solar storms.
Voyager 2's instruments detected a trapped electron population at energy levels that exceeded extrapolations from other planetary magnetospheres.
Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to have flown past Uranus.
Voyager 2 reached the edge of the heliosphere in 2018.
In March 2025, the team plans to deactivate an instrument on Voyager 2.
Voyager 1 is more than 25 billion kilometers from Earth, while Voyager 2 is over 21 billion kilometers away.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 and are powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that loses about four watts of power each year.
It takes 19 hours for a radio signal to reach Voyager 2 from Earth.
Voyager 2 continues to operate normally as of April 2024.
JWST released an infrared image of Neptune, its rings, and moons that is the most detailed look at Neptune since Voyager 2's 1989 flyby.
Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and New Horizons are the five spacecraft that previously achieved solar system escape velocity.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are 22.7 billion kilometers (152 AU) and 18.9 billion kilometers (126 AU) away from Earth respectively.
NASA–DOE collaboration provided the nuclear fuels that propelled Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 into interstellar space.
Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 within weeks of each other on missions to fly by Jupiter and Saturn.