18 Best Pictures As 45-Year Journey Nears End

The Voyager probes are pioneers of science, making it further into space than any other manufactured object.

NASA originally sent the twin probes on a four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn in 1977; they exceeded all expectations, and are still going 45 years later – making it NASA’s longest-lived mission. 

Amazing photos of the solar system are among the achievements they beamed back before NASA shut the cameras down.

But now, they face a terminal problem: their power is running out. NASA scientists are doing their best to find power for the final scientific instruments operating on board.

NASA recently found a clever hack to extend Voyager 2’s life for another three years. It plans to do the same with Voyager 1 so that both probes can keep sending back crucial information from interstellar space for as long as possible. 

But the probes are nearing the end of their scientific mission. Here are 18 images from Voyager that changed science: