5 SEPTEMBER 1977: VOYAGER 1 LAUNCHES!

by @sciencemug

Today, in 1977, NASA probe Voyager 1 launches from Kennedy Space Center.

Its twin Voyager 2 launches before it, on August the 20th 1977, but Voyager 1 is "1" 'cause it's going to reach Jupiter and Saturn first.

42 years later these two probes-grannies are still alive and kicking... In the interstellar space!

Indeed Voyager 1 becomes the first piece of humanity to reach interstellar space on August 2013, followed by Voyager 2 on November 2018!

1-JUNE-1979: JUPITER HAS A RING (SYSTEM) TOO!

Busting Jupiter (by sciencemug... and Voyager1)

 

[The picture of Jupiter is adapted from a Public Domain image by sciencemug (source: wikia.com)]

So things went like this: Voyager1 NASA space probe blurts out what it's just seen; as a consequence, on this very day (June, 1st) in 1979, this paper comes out on Science exposing Jupiter for what it really is, a polygamous cheater wearing a ring system (like Saturn, Uranus and Neptune); a hurt lady Earth starts flirting with Mars* (which has no ring(s))...

*Indeed lady 'easy' Earth had already started hitting on Mars in 1964, stalking it with space probe Mariner4