Question 1

True or false: Both Voyager probes have already left the Milky Way galaxy.

Accepted Answer

False. They are in interstellar space, but still within the Milky Way. Leaving the galaxy would take tens of thousands of years at their current speed.

Question 2

True or false: Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have flown past all four gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Accepted Answer

True. As of 2025, Voyager 2 remains the only probe to have visited all four outer planets, thanks to a rare planetary alignment in the 1970s.

Question 3

True or false: Each Voyager carries a golden record meant to communicate with extraterrestrial life.

Accepted Answer

True. The gold-plated copper records contain sounds, music, and images of Earth, designed by Carl Sagan’s team as a time capsule for any intelligent species that finds them.

Question 4

True or false: Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977, but Voyager 2 actually launched first.

Accepted Answer

True. Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 followed on September 5. Voyager 1 got its number because it was on a faster trajectory to Jupiter.

Question 5

True or false: Voyager 1 is the only human-made object to have visited Uranus.

Accepted Answer

False. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989). Voyager 1 took a different path and skipped both.

Question 6

True or false: The Voyager probes are powered by nuclear fission reactors.

Accepted Answer

False. They use radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) that convert heat from decaying plutonium-238 into electricity, not fission reactors.

Question 7

True or false: The Voyager probes will eventually run out of power and stop communicating by 2025.

Accepted Answer

False. They are expected to lose power for some instruments around 2025-2030, but at least one instrument may operate into the 2030s. They haven't stopped yet.

Question 8

True or false: Voyager 1’s thrusters, unused since 1980, were successfully fired again in 2017.

Accepted Answer

True. After 37 years of inactivity, engineers fired Voyager 1’s backup thrusters in 2017 to help orient the probe, proving their surprising longevity.

Voyager Probes Trivia Questions