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When Voyager 1 flew right at Jupiter in 1979, capturing frame by frame, the Great Red Spot was so large that it could hold nearly four Earths. Its winds are around 400 km / h and their effects have been a magnificent beauty mark on the planet for at least 300 years.
As for Voyager's twin, Voyager 2, when he flew over Jupiter, he turned around to take that picture 1.5 million kilometers away. The two orange bands on the left are the "Jovian" rings of the planet, while the blue and red streaks are the "member", or the edge of the planet, lit by the sun.
Before Voyager 2's arrival on Europa nearly two years after its launch in 1977, we had only glimpsed the dance of this moon of Jupiter across the sky from Earth. The flight over Voyager brought to Europa some breathtaking details, a body covered with dark scratches. What is surprising about this icy moon is that there are no big mountains on the surface, which suggests that the surface is young. Scientists now think that it is a thick layer of ice covering a gigantic ocean that can even contain life.
Voyager 2 was a busy photographer, capturing some of Saturn's most amazing images. This photo shows the ringed planet as if it were turned on its side. But it's also in real color that Saturn will look like our eyes. This image also contains three Saturnian moons: Tethys, Dione and Rhea.
After saying sayonara to Saturn, Voyager 2 went even further into the solar system to become the first and always the only one spaceship to visit Uranus. The planet is one of the ice giants, endowed with a thin ring system captured since by the Hubble Space Telescope. In this Voyager 2 image, the Uranus rings are not visible – it's simply a smooth teal-like atmosphere of one of the most mysterious planets in the solar system.
But wait, you also get Neptune: Voyager 2 is the first and only spacecraft to reach this planet as well. It is also an ice giant, but Neptune is almost in a category of its own: this huge planet directs the show into the outer solar system, exerting a gravitational influence on the orbits of many dwarf planets, including Pluto. When Voyager 2 visited Neptune, the planet introduced this great oval storm, which has since disappeared.
Once Voyager's main mission was over and his camera was to be closed forever, Carl Sagan and a few other teammates asked for one last shot. On Valentine's Day 1990, Voyager turned around to turn back to Earth. Our planet is hidden in these colorful sunbeams. Look to the right, you will see a small dot. That's us.
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