A quick tour of our solar system
Limits of Humanity: The observable universe goes on for light years & we'll only ever see 0.00000000001% of it (Kurzgesagt, Devour)Powers of Ten: The classic video from 1977 that explains the scale of space (YouTube)Riding Light: Travel with a beam of light in real time through our solar system (Vimeo, Alphonse Swinehart)A beautiful planet (IMAX)The Total Perspective Vortex: The machine from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that makes you feel so insignificant it will crush your soul (Hitchhiker Wiki)We need different types of telescopes to 'see' the different types of waves in the universe: radio, infrared, visible, X-ray, gamma (NASA)Telescope to seek Earthlike planet in Alpha Centauri system (The New York Times)The BoldlyGo Institute: Private space exploration (Boldy Go)Pluto is 7.5 billion km from Earth (Space.com)Live tracking: Where is Halley's comet now? (The Sky Live)Live tracking: Where are the Voyager probes now? (NASA)Voyager 1 is travelling at about 17 km per second (Wikipedia)It's believed that Voyager 1 is either in interstellar space or pretty close to it - that's the furthest we've sent anything (Wikipedia)NASA's 'eyes': Cool website where you can track all sorts of space things (NASA)The Deep Space Network: Live tracking of probes & stuff by telescopes on Earth (NASA)In about 30,000 years, Voyager 1 will have passed through the Oort Cloud & in 40,000 years it will pass within 1.6 light-years of the star Gliese 445 (Wikipedia)What is the Kuiper Belt? A belt of icy bodies beyond Neptune (Cosmos, Swinburne University)What is the Oort Cloud? A hypothesised belt of icy bodies in the far reaches of the solar system (Cosmos, Swinburne University)It would take about 6 months to drive to the Moon at 95 km/hour (Science Focus)Apollo 11 took 3 days, 3 hours & 49 minutes to reach the Moon (Reference.com)What if Apollo 11 failed? President Nixon had a speech ready (Space.com)A moon is any natural satellite orbiting another body - planets, dwarf planets, asteroids & Kuiper Belt objects can all have moons (Encyclopaedia Britannica)Earth's moon's name is the Moon (caps M), it's also sometimes called 'Luna' (Wikipedia)Earth potentially has 18,000 moons, depending on your definition (Space.com)A star is a big exploding ball of gas - the Sun (caps S) is the name of Earth's star (Qualitative Reasoning Group, Northwestern University)When to capitalise the 'E' on Earth (Grammarist)The 'controversial' 2006 definition of a planet states: "a planet is a body that orbits the Sun, is massive enough for its own gravity to make it round & has 'cleared its neighbourhood' of smaller objects around its orbit" (Wikipedia)Pluto was stripped of its planet status in 2006 (New Scientist)Formation & evolution of the solar system (Wikipedia)How are planets formed? (Phys.org)Planets form in zones: The terrestrial (rocky) planets closer to the sun & the jovian (gassy) planets further out (LASP, University of Colorado)Order of the 8 planets in our solar system (Space.com)How was the Earth formed? (Space.com)What is a gravity well? (Qualitative Reasoning Group, Northwestern University)Where did Earth get its water? (Cosmos)Where did Earth's water come from? (livescience)What is the Goldilocks Zone & why does it matter in the search for ET? (ABC, Australia)What is Neptune made of? It's an icy, slushy, gassy planet with a rocky core (Space.com)Basics of orbital mechanics (NASA)What are Kepler's Laws? They describe the motion of planets across the sky (HyperPhysics, Georgia State University)An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than our Sun (Wikipedia)5 ways to find an exoplanet (NASA)If Planet 9 is out there, it tilts our solar system (The New York Times)What is Jupiter made of? It's very gassy, mostly hydrogen & helium, & we don't know if it has a solid core (Space.com)The Juno probe aims to unlock the secrets of Jupiter - it's currently orbiting & will crash into it in February 2018 (NASA)Juno has had a glitch, but is mostly ok (The New York Times)What is Mercury made of? It's a dense little nugget with a neglible atmosphere (Space.com)What is Venus made of? It's a hot, rocky planet (Space.com)Was Venus the first habitable planet in our solar system? (The Guardian)Venus spins very slowly, in the wrong direction (The New York Times)"Venus’s climate is strongly driven by the most powerful greenhouse effect found in the solar system" (European Space Agency)Carbon dioxide absorbs & re-emits infrared radiation (Center for Science Education)Predator's infrared vision (YouTube)What is Mars made of? It's very dusty & rocky, with a thin atmosphere (Space.com)NASA confirms evidence that liquid water flows on today’s Mars (NASA)They reckon Mars was warm & wet about 4 billion years ago (NASA)Exploration of Mercury: We've only sent 2 probes, 1 in 1973 & 2004, but there's another set to launch in 2017 called 'BepiColombo' (Wikipedia)List of solar system probes: We've been busy (Wikipedia)How the atmosphere affects our planet (Softpedia)The gas giants (Wikipedia)What is Saturn made of? It's pretty gassy, mostly hydrogen & helium (Space.com)How long do footprints last on the Moon? Potentially as long as the Moon (Space.com)Origin of Jupiter & Saturn: New theories on formation of gas giants (The Daily Galaxy)The case for Saturn being able to float on water (Universe Today)The case against Saturn being able to float on water (Wired)Planets & dwarf planets can have moons, & there are currently 182 identified in our solar system (Wikipedia)Mecury & Venus don't have moons (Windows 2 The Universe)Mars' moons are Phobos & Deimos; Jupiter has 67 moons, including the 4 that Galileo discovered; Saturn has 62; Uranus has 27; Neptune has 14, NB: Some moons are still awaiting official 'moon status' confirmation (NASA)Galileo made his own telescope & discovered 4 of Jupiter's moons in 1610, which got him into trouble with the Catholic Church (BBC) Saturn has some very cool moons, including the beautiful Enceladus with its icy gesyers (Space.com)Our moon is pretty big by moon standards (Windows 2 The Universe)How the Moon formed: Violent cosmic crash theory gets double boost (Space.com)Our solar system gets pretty chilly out past Mars (NASA)What might the sun look like from other planets? (Futurism)NASA's 'Pluto Time' shows how bright it is on dwarf planet (Space.com)Pluto may have clouds (The New York Times)Chemical properties of methane (Wikipedia)Methane is quite common in the outer solar system (University of Oregon)Ceres is a dwarf planet (Wikipedia)Charon is the largest of the 5 known moons of the dwarf planet, Pluto (Wikipedia)Pluto's unusual orbit (Smithsonian)You need a telescope to see Pluto (EarthSky)The hypothetical planet, Vulcan (Wikipedia)Gravity Probe A helped figure out relativity (Wikipedia)Gravity Probe B helped figure out the curvature of space-time near Earth (Wikipedia)Why did we land on a comet? (Mental Floss)Røde microphonesCorrections
Woops! Lucy did bad maths: Light would travel a little over 1 billion km in 1 hour, not 65 billion km...so not as far as Pluto (Wolfram Alpha)Apparently we may have photographed an exoplanet: This is the first photo of a candidate 1,200 light-years away (Science Alert)More than 1,300 Earth's would fit inside Jupiter (NASA)Cheeky review? (If we may be so bold)
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