Scientists got their first close-up view of Saturn on this date 34 years ago, as Voyager 1 made its closest approach to the ringed planet (77,000 miles) on November 12, 1980. Voyager 1 sent back the first high-resolution photos of the planet, along with its famous rings and moons, changing what astronomers thought they had known about Saturn. The images Voyager 1 sent back of the planet’s rings showed there were not six, but hundreds, and that they were intertwined, or “braided,” in ways that hadn’t been considered before. (This image was taken four days later, as Voyager 1 moved past the planet.)

Nine months later, Voyager 1’s sister craft Voyager 2 approached Saturn in August 1981. The Voyagers combined to send back a wealth of images of Saturn, confirming the existence of three new moons around the planet and a significant atmosphere around the largest moon, Titan.

Both Voyager crafts were launched in 1977 and are currently heading out of the solar system. (Voyager 1 is the farthest spacecraft from Earth, at around 12 billion miles.) Voyager 2 also approached Uranus and Neptune during its mission. The crafts are expected to remain operational until around 2025, when they will lose power. If intelligent beings ever find either of them, they’ll come across documents, pictures, and recordings from Earth, including spoken greetings by human children, written messages from former leaders including Jimmy Carter, and a range of sounds, from whales to Beethoven to Chuck Berry.

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