Voyager to give first close look at Neptune

Abstract

This week the final chapter in Voyager 2's historic planetary saga will be played out as the plucky spacecraft swings past Neptune, currently the outermost planet of the solar system. This first-ever closeup look at Neptune and its largest moon, Triton, both of which are difficult to observe from Earth, is expected to revolutionize understanding of these mysterious objects. Voyager 2, which has already visited Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, will swoop to within 3000 miles of Neptune's cloud tops at midnight, eastern time, Aug. 24. Five hours later, it will pass within 24,000 miles of the frigid surface of Triton, the only large moon in the solar system that orbits in a direction opposite to its planet's rotation. In recent weeks, as Voyager has been closing in on its target, it has begun offering scientists a taste of things to come. Images from the spacecraft have revealed four new moons in orbit around the pale ...