Back to Glossary

Voyager 2

Voyager 2 is a NASA space probe launched on August 20, 1977, to study the outer planets. It is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune, providing invaluable data on these planets and their moons. Voyager 2 is now in interstellar space, continuing to send data back to Earth.

Source: science.nasa.gov

APODs including "Voyager 2"

Neptune's Moon Proteus

04/11/1995

Neptune's Moon Proteus
Image Credit: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Proteus is the second largest moon of Neptune behind the mysterious Triton. Proteus was discovered only in 1982 by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. This is unusual since Neptune has a smaller moon - Nereid - which was discovered 33 years earlier from Earth. The reason Proteus was not discovered sooner is that its surface is very dark and it orbits much closer to Neptune. Proteus has an odd box-like shape and were it even slightly more massive, its own gravity would cause it to reform itself into a sphere.