The Voyager probes

Launched in the 1970s, still going

Only spacecraft can see it

The Voyager probes — A Voyager probe with its big dish antenna, traveling among the stars far from everything.

The numbers

How many there are: Two twin probesTwins, built together
When they set off: In 1977
What they saw: Jupiter and Saturn up close
What they carry: A record with sounds and pictures of Earth

To get an idea

They are the objects built by people that are farthest from the Earth.

They carry a record with sounds and pictures of the Earth, put there not out of certainty but just in case.

Fun facts

These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.

On board each one there is a golden record with pictures, sounds and music of the Earth.
The instructions for playing the record are engraved on its metal cover.
That record is not a science instrument: it is a message, sent with no one to receive it.
The probes were built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a center funded by NASA.
It took decades for them to reach the edge of the Sun's territory.

Test yourself

The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.

Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book

How many Voyager probes are there?

Question 2 of 5

What did they study up close first?

Question 3 of 5

Are they still working?

Question 4 of 5

What do they carry on board?

Question 5 of 5

What are they studying now?

Riddles

We are two twins who left almost fifty years ago and never turned back: no object built by human hands has gone farther than us. What are we?

I carry a record that is no use for any scientific measurement: it holds voices, music and noises from my home, and maybe nobody will ever listen to it. What am I?

I was the first to photograph two striped giants and their trains of moons, and then I kept going toward the border of my star's kingdom. What am I?

Try it yourself

Activity 1

Try choosing which five sounds of the Earth you would put on a record like that, knowing that maybe nobody will ever listen to it.

Activity 2

Look up how far away the two probes are right now: it is a number that grows every second, while you are reading it.

The words

heliopause: The border where the solar wind gets as weak as the push from outside.

Sources: Wikidata (Q506854), Wikipedia (Programma Voyager).