Historic space photo of the week: Voyager 2 spies a storm on Saturn 42 years ago

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With the ringed planet currently perfectly positioned for observation with a small telescope, relive Voyager 2's landmark 1981 visit.

Voyager 2 took this image of Saturn on Aug. 11, 1981, when the spacecraft was 9.1 million miles from Earth.
Voyager 2 took this image of Saturn on Aug. 11, 1981, when the spacecraft was 9.1 million miles from Earth. (Image credit: NASA/JPL)

What it is: Saturn, the seventh planet from the sun, as seen by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft

When it was taken: Aug. 11, 1981

Where it is: 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) from the sun — 9.5 times the Earth-sun distance

The image was taken 9 million miles (15 million km) from Earth, just as Voyager 2 approached the ringed planet, using the spacecraft's VG ISS Narrow Angle instrument. The false-color image was assembled from ultraviolet, violet and green images with filters used to make them visible to the human eye. If you look beneath the yellow band of clouds (which, in reality, would be white), you'll see a green spot (which is actually brown) that represents a storm. Voyager 2 measured winds blowing at Saturn's equator at a whopping 1,100 mph (1,770 km/h).

Nor was Voyager 2 the first of the two Voyager probes to photograph the ringed planet. Its twin, Voyager 1, reached Saturn in November 1980, while Voyager 2 visited nine months later, making its closest approach on Aug. 26, 1981. However, because Voyager 2 had more sensitive cameras, it was able to detect a lot more features in Saturn's turbulent atmosphere, according to NASA.

How to see it in the night sky: Now is the perfect time to see Saturn, but to get any sense of its rings, you'll need a good telescope. The ringed planet is currently at its biggest, brightest and best for the year, having reached opposition (when Earth is between it and the sun) on Aug. 27. Saturn is currently in the constellation Aquarius and rising in the east at dusk.

Jamie Carter
Jamie Carter
Live Science contributor

Jamie Carter is a Cardiff, U.K.-based freelance science journalist and a regular contributor to Live Science. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and co-author of The Eclipse Effect, and leads international stargazing and eclipse-chasing tours. His work appears regularly in Space.com, Forbes, New Scientist, BBC Sky at Night, Sky & Telescope, and other major science and astronomy publications. He is also the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.