dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (01/23/86)
Tomorrow Voyager makes its closest approach to the planet Uranus. More on the remarkable journey of this spacecraft -- after this. January 23 Voyager and Uranus No one knew the planet Uranus existed until two hundred years ago -- when William Herschel discovered it in the year l781. Tomorrow morning Voyager Two makes its closest approach to this far distant world. Voyager is the first spacecraft to visit the seventh planet outward from the sun. Voyager 2 was launched in l977. It has been traveling in space for nine years -- and it has covered a distance of three billion miles. The spacecraft passed Jupiter in l979 and Saturn in l98l. Along with its sister craft Voyager 1, Voyager 2 relayed incredible pictures of the moons and rings of these gas giant worlds. The gravitational fields of Jupiter and Saturn kicked the spacecraft into different trajectories -- sending them both ever farther from the sun. For the past five years Voyager 2 has been pursuing its own path outward -- one that takes it near an intriguing planet. Uranus is the only world in the solar system that spins sideways as it orbits the sun. Voyager is heading to sideways Uranus like an arrow towards a target. The spacecraft will pass through the uranian system -- coming close to the innermost moon, Miranda, and the outermost of the dark rings of Uranus. Closest approach to the planet is scheduled for tomorrow morning -- as Voyager 2 becomes the first spacecraft ever to visit Uranus. Script by Diana Hadley. (c) Copyright 1985, 1986 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin