Voyager Encounters Jupiter

In late summer of 1977, the United States launched two unmanned Voyager spacecraft on an extensive reconnaissance of the outer planets, a decade-long odyssey that could take them to 3 planets and as many as 18 planetary satellites. The first encounter was with the giant Jovian planetary system, 645 million kilometers (400 million miles) away. Passing by Jupiter and its complex satellite system in 1979, the Voyager spacecraft have collected and returned to Earth an enormous amount of data an...