Flying by Worlds

Voyager 1 Aircraft (Source)

So how exactly are we able to know so much about the features, terrains, and even atmosphere of the planets and moons of our solar system? Well, one of the main tools used by scientists to explore planets are flybys. In general, flybys are when a spacecraft travel closely past a world for observation and continue on its path. Unlike lander, probes, rovers, or sample return missions, flybys are generally cheaper to fund not only because they are less expensive to launch but also because they can visit multiple planets rather than just one. For example, the Voyager missions, which are probably two of the most famous flybys, observed various worlds beyond their mission scope before exiting our Solar System. Launched just months apart in the summer of 1977, the Voyager aircrafts were created with the goal of exploring Jupiter, Saturn, their rings, and their moons. Nevertheless, the two flybys would go on to explore all Jovian planets, almost 50 of their moons, as well as the rings and magnetic field of the gas giants. Flybys also carry an assortment of tools such as telescopes, cameras, and spectrographs in order to capture the various features of planets during their short period near it. Through the path of flybys and their instruments, we were able to observe many qualities and characteristics of our solar system that would have been close to impossible to observe from Earth; some of these being the ability to capture the highest resolution images of our worlds and the rings of the outer planets from a different view. Flybys are an integral part of our space exploration and will continue to be for years to come.