NASA's Voyager probes have traveled through space for nearly 50 years. See the remarkable photos from their journeys.

This montage shows examples of striking images of the solar system taken by Voyager 1 and 2 on their missions.

NASA/JPL/Insider Voyager 2 launched into the solar system 49 years ago on August 20, 1977.

Together with Voyager 1, the two probes are now billions of miles away from Earth.

Here are the extraordinary pictures the probes have taken during their journey through space.

Voyager 2, a pioneer in outer solar system exploration, left Earth for interstellar space 49 years ago, on August 20, 1977.

The twin of Voyager 1 , which left Earth only a few weeks after, is the only spacecraft to visit all four of the solar system's outer gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

The Voyager probes were originally sent on a four-year mission to tour the solar system, but they exceeded expectations and are still going nearly half a century later.

That makes them NASA's longest-lived mission, costing the agency more than $865 million.

The two probes have had their fair share of interstellar road bumps , which have only been exacerbated as the probes age.

In 2022, Voyager 1 started sending garbled data from outside the solar system.

NASA ultimately figured out that one of its computers had gone dead years earlier.

Voyager 2 fell into limbo in 2023, losing contact with NASA after someone sent a wrong command.

The agency detected a faint signal from Voyager days later after blasting a "shout" across the cosmos to get the probe to point its antennae back to Earth and resume communication.

Come November 2026, Voyager 1 will be 16 billion miles — or one light-day — away from Earth.