... Voyager Spacecraft Introduction (This Page) . ... The twin Voyager spacecraft, over the course of a dozen years, drew back the curtain on nearly half of the solar system . From launch in 1977 through the spectacular parting shots in 1989 of Neptune at the outer reaches of the solar system, this pair of gangly, instrument-laden spacecraft explored four planets -- Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus and Neptune -- as well as tens of moons, and the rings and magnetic environments of those planetary systems. ...

... It was designed to observe the solar wind approaching Earth, from a position near the Lagrangian point L1, and it is part of the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Initiative . ... The original plan called for "Wind" to approach its final station over two years, undergoing two close encounters with the Moon to boost its speed. ... If however the object is moving , the encounter is not symmetric, and in the end the spacecraft may have gained or lost speed, depending on its trajectory. ...

Astronomy Picture of the Day . ... This picture was taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986 - the only spacecraft ever to visit Neptune. Neptune will be the farthest planet from the Sun until 1999, when the elliptical orbit of Pluto will cause it to once again resume this status. ... Mercury: Closest Planet to the Sun . ... Space Shuttle Atlantis lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California. ... Space Shuttle Challenger jumps off the launch pad in 1985 to begin a successful mission. ...

... It was designed to observe the solar wind approaching Earth, from a position near the Lagrangian point L1, and it is part of the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Initiative . ... The original plan called for "Wind" to approach its final station over two years, undergoing two close encounters with the Moon to boost its speed. ... If however the object is moving , the encounter is not symmetric, and in the end the spacecraft may have gained or lost speed, depending on its trajectory. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Space Flight . ... Posted on January 16, 2014 | No Comments With an eventful stargazing year behind and us teetering on the brink of 2014 wondering what it may have in store, we can plunge in with confidence knowing that the [ ] . Continue Reading.. ... Posted on October 28, 2013 | ... Posted on September 9, 2013 | ... Posted on June 18, 2013 | ... Posted on May 2, 2013 | ... Posted on April 2, 2013 | ... Posted on March 5, 2013 | ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2000 October 11 . Cassini Spacecraft Approaches Jupiter . Credit: Cassini Imaging Team , Cassini Project , NASA . Explanation: A new spacecraft has entered the outer Solar System: Cassini . Launched in 1997 and bound for Saturn in 2004, Cassini sent back the above image last week while approaching the giant planet Jupiter . ...

... The unexpected discovery of Jupiter-size planets very close to their parent stars (two examples of which are 51 Peg and Boo) creates a challenge for theories of planetary formation and structure. ... Direct observation of such extra-solar planets with an infrared interferometer is a difficult task because of the very high dynamic range required (typically 3?104 to 3?105), but not impossible if a very careful spatial filtering and calibration is imposed upon the recombined beams. ...

... There has been a heated public discussion in the past few years about whether our ninth planet is really deserving of the name. Since Pluto orbits a star, and is much less luminous, it certainly satisfies the definition we have above. The problem is actually not with Pluto, but with a very large number of other bodies in our Solar System which also satisfy this definition, but which are not called planets. Perhaps the most notable of these is Ceres, the largest asteroid. ... Planet . ...

... Tonight's Sky . ... The Magazine . ... Star Atlas . ... An artificial comet holds secrets to Earths life . ... Astronomy for Kids . ... Observing springtime deep-sky objects with a large telescope . ... The planet has extreme temperature swings and perhaps active lava flows. ... A digital supplement to Astronomy magazine. ... Join TravelQuest International with Astronomy and Discover magazines on one of three great tour options surrounding this celestial spectacle . ... Astronomy Magazine . ...

GRANAT is the Russian x-ray sattelite launched to the high apogee orbit (200,000 km) and operated almost for 10 years (1989 -1999) , carrying out four major instruments: French SIGMA coded-mask hard x-ray telescope (30-1000 keV), Soviet ART-P coded-mask telescope (2??-60?? keV), all-sky monitor WATCH (6-150 keV), and a gamma-burst detector PHEBUS . ... Since September 1994, GRANAT is in the survey mode. ... Explore pages devoted to individual GRANAT instruments (including main scientific results): . ...

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... Since planets are expected to form out of the material in disks around young stars, the formation of a planet will thoroughly alter the structure of the circumstellar disk of their host star, forming significant gaps in the radial distribution of matter around the star. Additionally, processing of solids (annealing/crystallization) and changes in the overall gas/dust ratio are thought to happen during the planet formation process and are believed to alter the observational signature of the disk. ...

Giant Jupiter. Jupiter . ... Jupiter has no solid surface that is why speaking about its dimensious point the radius of the upper border line of the clouds, where the presseru is about 10 KPa; radius of Jupiter on the equator is 71400 km. ... The Jupiter satellites. ... Nowadays 16 satellites of the Jupiter are known: Adrastea, Mitis, Amaltea , Phina,then 4 Galilei satellites: Io , Europe , Hanimed , Callisto , Leda, Aimalia, Zicitea, Elara, Ananke, Carme, Pasipe and Sinope. ... Jupiter's ring. ...

... Parent Directory - nikon_1290045674_ jupiter _0p02s_12800iso.jpg 2010-11-17 21:02 2.7M nikon_1290045810_ jupiter _0p001s_3200iso.jpg 2010-11-17 21:03 2.2M nikon_1290045810_ jupiter _0p001s_3200iso_sum.jpg 2010-11-18 12:18 6.1K nikon_1290045844_ jupiter _0p001s_3200iso.jpg 2010-11-17 21:04 2.2M nikon_1290045854_ jupiter _0p001s_3200iso.jpg 2010-11-17 21:04 2.2M nikon_1290045864_ jupiter _0p001s_3200iso.jpg ...

... NASA SPACECRAFT FINDS NEW EVIDENCE FOR WATER ICE ON MERCURY . ... The new data indicate the water ice in Mercury's polar regions, if spread over an area the size of Washington, D.C., would be more than 2 miles thick," said David Lawrence, a MESSENGER participating scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., and lead author of one of three papers describing the findings. ... Water ice concentrations are derived from the hydrogen measurements. ...

... More on 51 Peg: . The discovery of a Jupiter--mass planet in orbit around the solar--type star 51Peg has been reported by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz (Geneva Observatory) on October 6th at the 9th Cambridge workshop on "cool stars, stellar systems, and the sun" held at Florence (Italy). ... Recall that the measurements of radial velocity only yield v sin i which in turn gives us M sin i. For most values of i, sin i will be greater than 0.5 and this gives a mass estimate of 0.5 Jupiter masses. ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... The Nine Planets . ... One of the first targets for anyone with a small telescope is Jupiter. ... The disk of Jupiter itself is easily resolved, and a small 'scope will reveal that the planet has three ghostly bands across its "surface". Those bands are actually immense hurricanes, fueled by Jupiter's interior heat and whipped into horizontal bands by the planet's fast rotation (Jupiter spins once every nine hours or so). ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

Astropark Home . Solar System . ... Planets . ... A year is the time that it takes for a planet to go around the Sun. ... As a result, an Earth year is very different in length from a year on Saturn or any other planet. ... But on this scale, most of the planets are too small to see, so their size has been increased by 200 times. ... The Astropark's red gravel represents the asteroid belt – thousands of smaller bodies which range in size from pebbles up to small planets hundreds of miles across. ...

Extended ephemerides of NEAs and some unusual minor planets listed in the Table on p. 5731 (Jupiter-crossers, Jupiter-approachers, some unusual Mars-crossers) are presented on p. 23099 – 23489. At the end of the Table special index is placed which indicates page numbers where the ephemerides of different planets are given. ...

Here are some World Wide Web links which are related to those topics found in Chapter Five: . The Nine Planets . The Solar System . Comprehensive lists of planet facts . Up to date representation of the solar system . Ringed planets . ... NASA`s solar system exploration site . The Voyager Spacecraft . The Galileo Spacecraft . The Magellan Spacecraft . Spacecraft Images . New planet around 51 Pegasus . ... Back to Chapter Five ...