Voyager 1 Encounters Saturn

The cover photograph shows Saturn and two of its moons, Tethys (above) and Dione (below), photographed by Voyager 1 on November 3, 1980, from 13 million kilometers (8 million miles). A caption says Voyager 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on September 5, 1977, beginning its journey to Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond. The introduction says that under the planetary exploration program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Voyager Mission, begun in 1972, was designed to explore Jupiter, Saturn, their satellites, rings, magnetic fields, and interplanetary space.

The contents list names, among others, The Planet, The Rings, The Satellites and A Glimpse Back. The foreword says the pictures assembled in the publication are a part of the rich and varied harvest of information returned by Voyager 1 across nearly a billion miles of interplanetary space. A caption says Titan is a large, bizarre satellite, larger (almost 5120 kilometers or 3180 miles in diameter) than the planet Mercury, and possesses a dense atmosphere of unique composition. A table of Scientific Investigations lists imaging science with the objectives of planetary meteorology, satellite geology, and ring structure and dynamics.