mastodon.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

Administered by:

Server stats:

373K
active users

Depending on your time zone, Voyager 2's closest approach to Neptune was either yesterday (the 24th) or in 1989. It took place around 4am UTC.

Here's a short thread with some great images captured by the probe, and some proposed cargo for a future mission.

(Definitely read this one to the end.)

Voyager 2 captured this image of Neptune's Great Dark Spot on its approach to the planet a few days earlier.

But when Hubble looked just five years later, the Earth-sized storm with 1300 mph winds was gone.

Image: NASA/JPL

Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees

Images of Neptune’s moon Triton and its surface captured by Voyager 2 as it sailed past.

Of all the large objects in the solar system, Triton has the most circular orbit. The eccentricity is only about 0.00002.

Images: NASA / JPL

A remarkable video of the Triton fly-by, made in 2014 with restored/processed Voyager 2 images.

Credit: P. Schenk, LPI / NASA / JPL

youtu.be/N1Fl1QKkEok?si=5Gzct_

Three days after its flyby, Voyager 2 looked back for this gorgeous image of a crescent Neptune and Triton. Triton, much smaller than Neptune, is in the foreground.

Image: NASA/JPL

Voyager 2 continued to collect Neptune data for another month or so after sailing off. But this was the last stop on its Grand Tour. After that, it left the ecliptic and headed off towards interstellar space.

We haven't been back since.

However, if NASA *does* decide to send another probe, there's a little bit of cargo I'd like to add.

When my daughter was 6yo, she figured out that thing where you sneakily stick a note on someone’s back.

But she didn’t know the notes should say things like “kick me.” Instead, she would put space facts on them. She was really into outer space at the time.

One time I felt something on my back, then heard her run off giggling. I reached around, peeled off the little post-it, and found this:

Anyway, if NASA ever does decide to send another probe to Neptune, I hope they'll let me know. I saved the note, which I'd be happy to send to them, to place onboard.

@mcnees But Triton’s orbit is retrograde.

@mcnees It would save them the expense of going.

@mcnees To be fair, my dad also has really strong winds.

@mcnees It was so cool when Voyager went by Neptune. The only drag was my dad had died of cancer earlier in the month. First cool astronomy thing I couldn’t share with my dad.

RIP dad.

@mcnees yeah so it goes. Have lots of great shared astronomy memories with him, though. When I was in middle school and got my first telescope, I showed him sunspots and he was so thrilled he kept a notebook on them every day he could see the sun for a year.

@mcnees This is the best thing I've seen in ages. I think you might be doing this parenting thing right.

@haley_exe @mcnees I hear the winds on Uranus are pretty strong, too!

Wind speeds can reach up to 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers per hour) on Uranus

@mcnees That is just incredibly sweet and amazing. ☺️

@mcnees @benno I thought this was an indictment of the wearer's gaseous atmosphere — not so innocent!

@mcnees For some reason I was led to believe that strong winds were more common on Uranus.

(sorry)

@mcnees that’s adorable. And also: what a diss. You and your strong winds. 😂

@mcnees Damn, I would be a proud parent on finding that! 😁

@mcnees This is pure sweetness! I hope that post-it gets to Neptune one day!

@mcnees @NancyWallaceGA she has already mastered the intersection of science and fart jokes, this 6-year-old is going far in life.

@mcnees if she’d picked Uranus instated she would’ve been onto something

@mcnees Your daughter is my new favorite person.

@mcnees omg you need to preserve that in an acid free mount and museum quality frame. that is the most adorable thing ever!

@mcnees didn’t know the note should say “kick me”, are you kidding? She put together space facts and a fart joke, at 6 years old. Legend!

@mcnees To be fair, I think this really does work rather well as a conventional note-on-back joke.

@DamonWakes in a sense, it really is the greatest possible fart joke

@mcnees I can just about remember being an excited child awaiting news of Neptune in 1989. That excitement about Space has never grown old though 😃