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Published December 15, 1989 | public
Journal Article

The Voyager 2 Encounter with the Neptunian System

Abstract

An overview of the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune is presented, including a brief discussion of the trajectory, the planned observations, and highlights of the results described in the 11 companion papers. Neptune's blue atmosphere has storm systems reminiscent of those in Jupiter's atmosphere. An optically thin methane ice cloud exists near the 1.5-bar pressure level, and an optically thick cloud exists below 3 bars. Neptune's magnetic field is highly tilted and offset from the planet's center; it rotates with a period of 16.11 hours. Two narrow and two broad rings circle the planet; the outermost of these rings has three optically thicker arc segments. Six new moons were discovered in circular prograde orbits, all well inside Triton's retrograde orbit. Triton has a highly reflective and geologically young surface, a thin nitrogen atmosphere, and at least two active geyser-like plumes.

Additional Information

© 1989 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 27 October 1989; accepted 15 November 1989. We wish to pay special tribute to the members of the Voyager project team, without whom the data reported in these papers could not have been collected. The Voyager program is one of the programs of the Solar System Exploration Division of NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. The Voyager project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology under contract with NASA.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 26, 2023