Posts: 1257
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 12-04-2023 12:33 PM               

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Just marking today (Dec. 4) as the 50th anniversary of Pioneer 10's encounter with Jupiter and the beginning of spacecraft exploration of the gas giants.

She was launched on 3 March 1972. Last telemetry was received 27 April 2002; and last signal received 23 January 2003.

Pioneer 10's trajectory will take it in the general direction of the red giant Aldebaran. In about 90,000 years, Pioneer 10 will pass about 0.23 parsecs (0.75 light-years) from the late K-type star HIP 117795. If Aldebaran, currently 65 light years away, had zero relative velocity compared to the sun, it would require a bit more than two million years for the spacecraft to pass near it.

Posts: 3648
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 12-05-2023 05:25 PM            

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I well remember Pioneer 10's arrival at Jupiter and my excitement on seeing the best close-up images. By today's standards, they were nothing like as good as Hubble images of Jupiter, or even the best ground-based images, but in those days it was a thrill to know that images from the vicinity of Jupiter were being received back on Earth.

And of course, Pioneer's successful passage through the asteroid belt and Jupiter's radiation was all very helpful for the people planning the trajectories of Voyagers 1 and 2.