Voyager+2

**VOYAGER 1 & 2**



 * Voyager 2's exciting flyby of** **//Neptune//** **//capped the historic Grand Tour of the outer solar system, taking advantage of a rare planetary alignment to visit the four giant outer planets//** **//Jupiter//****//,//** **//Saturn//****//,//** **//Uranus//****//, and Neptune over the course of 12 years. Voyager 2 skimmed the north pole of Neptune by a mere 4800 kilometers (3000 miles), and determined basic characteristics of Neptune and its largest moon//** **//Triton//****//: color, cloud-top features, size, mass, composition, temperature, and rotation rate. Voyager 2 found six new Neptunian moons and three new rings plus a broad sheet of//** **//ring material//****//. Unexpectedly, geysers of gaseous nitrogen were found on the largest moon, Triton. Neptune's magnetic field also confounded: tilted 47 degrees with respect to the rotational axis, and offset from the center of the planet by half the planet's radius. Voyager 2's flight path past Neptune sent the spacecraft diving below the ecliptic plane, where it continues its search today for the heliopause (the boundary between the//** **//Sun//****//'s influence and interstellar space).//**