1. For thousands of years, we have been looking at the sky. We have studied other planets
and trieed to understand them. But to learn more about the planets in our solar system.
we have to get closer to them. In September 1977, America sent Voyager 1 into space to
get a closer look at other planets. Voyager 1 has been travelling through space ever since
and has flown past a number or planets in our solar system. Now, it is nearly 17 billion
kilometres from the Earth!
2. Voyager 1 is a space probe. It doesn’t carry any people, but it does carry a lot of
equipment. It sends information and pictures back from other planets by radio. Since it
left Earth, it has sent a lot of information and pictures! Scientists study the information
and pictures Voyager 1 sends and are able to learn about the other planets. Voyager 1’s
mission was to fly past Jupiter and Saturn. It flew past Jupiter in January 1979, and
Saturn in November 1980. But Voyager 1 didn’t stop there.
3. Voyager 1 is flying further into space. It is travelling at about 520 million kilometres a
year. In 2007 it entered the heliosheath back to Earth. The pictures took about fourteen hour
to get here! Voyager 1 has enough power to send information back to Earth until the
year 2020. One day it may go to other solar systems and other planets. It could be flying
through space for thousands of years!