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UNDERSTANDING
THE SOLAR
SYSTEM
Pate Ray
NECA ser roll Td
COMPLETE GUIDE
roe a icron
red
METEOR SHOWERS
SPACE VOLCANOES
Oa ores
RECOWelcome
ur Solar System is a try
amazing place about
whieh we know so much,
yet atthe same time still
have so much to learn In
Understanding The Solar
system, well explore the inner workings
of our fascinating cosmic neighbourhood,
from the wonders of our own planet to
the secrets ofthe Ice Giants and all of
four planetary neighbours. Marvel atthe
Incredible star that makes ital posible,
and delve beneath the surface of Earth's
‘very own natural satellite and some of
the Solar Systems strangest moons, Well
also bring you a host of articles on other
fascinating space phenomena, such as
comets, asteroids alien storms and moreGuide to the Moon
Everything you need to know
about our natural satelite
Strangest moons
Discover sre ofthe facinating
worlds inte Solar System
Does Earth have a
second moon?
Learn more about the asteroid
tracking our orbit around the Sun
Escape to Titan
When the Sun scorches Earth
a tiny Sturian moon could
becurnest hore
Space volcanoes
From Venus o Mars, voleanoes
have helped shape the hodies
of our Solar System
Martian
megatsunami
the Red Planet
Comets, asteroids
and meteor showers
Discover the space rocks that
liter our Solar System
Where are the
biggest craters?
"Explore some of the largest
craters in the Solar System,
ien storms
Discover incredible
weather on other worlds
and what causes itPUMITETe Tee
1 The Great
Red Spot is
shrinking
Along with being the Solar System’ largest
planet, Jupiter also hosts the Solar System's
largest storm, Known as the Great Red Spot,
its been observed in telescopes since the
1600s and studied by modern instruments
like those on NASA Juno, which recently
‘rovded evidence thatthe storm is
hundreds of miles tall and Ukely fed by
‘winds from thousands of miles below The
storm has been a raging conundrum for
centuries, bt in recent decades another
mystery emerge: the spot is getting
smaller. In 2014 the storm was only 163500,
Jllometres (10.250 miles) across, about
half ts histori size. The shrinkage is being
‘monitored in professional telescopes, and
also by amateurs. Amateurs are often able
tomake more consistent measurements
of Jupiter because viewing time on larger
professional telescopes is limited and often
split between diferent objects
Tl Jupiter’s moon lo has huge
volcanic eruptions
pared to Eats peaceful Moon, Jupiter's moon lo may come asa surpri
Jovian moon has hundreds of volcanoes and is considered the most
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10UNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Contents
25 unbelievable How the planets
facts about the would look...
Solar System they were atthe same
ae oat distance from Earth as the Moon
could be the strangest place
in the cosmos Jupiter
The largest planet has aot wo
tellus, an Juno is on the case
thes Everything you
e Sun
‘The Solar System would need to know
De noi werent or he about Saturn
ewer of our nearest sar Theres more o this gs gant
than meets the eye
The swelling Sun
‘Scientists get a gruesome look Secrets of the
at how our Sun will eat planets Ice Giants
Join us as we peek into
Mercury ‘the unknown,
‘This minute world is arguably
the least explored ofthe
four terrestrial planets
22 things you didn’t
know about Venus
arth’ssister planet san intriguing,
and mysterious world
What are planets
like on the inside?
ven among the worlds
of our Solar Sytem we ee a
ge variety of planets
Earth
The rocky world that we
call home is full of wonders
Complete guide
to Mars
‘Were learning more about the
Red Planet every dayy pat Ce]
Bre ee
CT i
Cane ees
rh ee nti
Papeete renen
Perret ty
Sunny
Perens
See erat
Pee er ear
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eer n
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Ponerinae
Ee ee ad
poe ea
oe
Mars’ biggest volcano
is bigger than Hawai
Ba K elf olives
Lule) ate)
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Piel Accs
places too”
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Sapa ennne enery
eee Tete tran eas
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ee tee
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Pe eee ones
eeeThe Solar System
is really big
[NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraR was launched in 1977, More than three
decades later, in 2012 it became the frst human-made object to
enter interstellar space by crossing the heliopause —the edge of the
heliosphere. Thats the boundary beyond which most ofthe Suns
ejected particles and magnetic feds dissipate. “If we define our
Solar System as the Sun and everything that primarily orbits the
Sun, Voyager 1 wil remain within the confines ofthe:
‘nti it emerges from the Oort Cloud in another 14,000 to 2,000
years? NASA says,
The Moon is both mind-
bogglingly distant and incredibly
close depending on how you
think about it
ola System
Even just our
neighbourhood is really big
Depending on how carefully you do the calculations and how
you arrange them al of the planets in the Solar System could ft
In between Earth and its Moon. The distance between Earth and
the Moon varies as it orbits around us, as does the diameter of
each ofthe planets - they're wider at their equator, so Saturn
and Jupiter would have tobe tilted siderays for this to work But
Lmagine lining them all up, pole to pole. They'd just barely squeeze
in between us and our closest companion in space, blocking out the
sky with their rings and gas giant bulk as they did so,
The Moon isthe farthest from Earth we've ever sent humans, and
it's both min-bogghingly distant and incredibly close depending on
how you think about i Fight enormous planets could fit between
here and there, and the distance from Farth tothe Sun is more
‘than 390 times the distance from Earth tothe Moon, Scientists use
‘an approximation ofthe Earth-Sun distance, also known as one
astronomical unit, or AU, to campare distances within the Solar
System, Jupiter is about §2 AU from the Sun, and Neptune is 30.0
AU fom the Sun ~ around 30 ties as far frm the star as EarthPIMITELE Tee
Teta
still shrinking
Sree
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Venus is swept by powerful
winds that could harbour life
Venus is a hellish planet with a high
temperature, high-pressure environment
nits surface. Bane-dry and hot enough
to melt ead, ts not exacly a welcoming
environment, and has probably always
been inhospitable to life. When the heavily
shielded Venera spacecraft from the Soviet
UUnion landed there inthe 1970s, each
lasted a few minutes, or at most a few
hours, before melting or being crushed
beyond their ability to function
But even above its surface, the planet
has a bizarre environment. Scientists
have found that its upper winds flow 50
Earth’s Van Allen belts are
more bizarre than expected
“There are several hands of magnetically
trapped, highly energetic charged particles
surrounding our planet, known as the
Van Allen belts. While we've known
bout the belts since the
ddavn ofthe Space Age,
the Van Allen Probes,
launched in 2022,
have provided our
best ever view
of them. They've
uncovered quitea
few surprises along
the way. We now
times faster than the planets rotation.
‘The European Venus Express spacecraft,
‘which orited the planet between 2006,
and 2015, tracked the winds overlong
periods and detected periodic variations. I
also found that the hurricane-force winds
appeared to be getting stronger overtime. A
2020 study that thrilled many astobiologists
detected phosphine, a posible sign of
{decaying biological matter, high in the
‘Venusian clouds, Could they be a sign of
1ife? Not without sufficient water, claim
follow-up studies that reject the possibilty
of life in Venus’ dry and windy atmosphere
‘now thatthe belts expand and contrat
according to solar activity. Sometimes the
Delis are very distinct from one another,
and sometimes they swell nto
fone massive unit. An extra
raciation belt beyond
the known two was
spotted in 2013,
Understanding these
belts helps scientists
make better
redictins about
space weather or
solar stormsUNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
unbelievable
facts sr aly
meee4
1 There is water
everywhere
Water was once considered rare in space
But water ice exists al over the Solar
system. I's a comman component of com
and asteroids, Water can be found a ice in
permanently shadowed craters on Mercury
re don't
enough to support prospective
and the Moon, though | wif
Jnuman colonies i those places. Mars also
has ice at its poles, in fost and likely below
the surface dust. Even smaller bois in
the Solar System have ice: Saturn's moon
Enceladus and the dwatf planet
among othe
Scientists suspect Jup
may be the mos ke
t's moon Europ
candidate for
gains all
expectations there’ likey liquid water
below i
Barop
host a deep ocean that researchers suggest
could contain twice as much water as all of
extraterrestrial life because
racked and frozen surf
Earths oceans combined,
But
Close-up examination of Comet 67P by the
re know that not allie is the same,
revealed a differen kind of
the kind f
ser ice than
und on Earth,
Peete rere
Ore
any
Aor)
Saturn has a
yin-yang moon
Ce eae uc ate ae ae oe
ene Se ert ee eee
Prcreeoeorte amir tert eer eenit acecmeee arte
‘rightly enough fo be spotted by felescopes and then dims down by several
poet rremrelit peer ire erin ener Ty
ere ne eee eee eer
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Tat may have created a postive feedback loop, as dark material heats up more
eee errr error er a
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eee norte
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Rings are more common
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De ee eer eee
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years to reveal more. We now know that every planet in the outer Solar
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eresUNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
News from the Sun
Explore some of the features of our Solar System’s star
ee
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Uranus spins
sideways
Tis gas glans pretty weird on closer
inspection. First, the planet roates on its
side, appearing to rol around the Sun like
a ball. The most likely explanation for the
planets unusual orientation - about 90
degrees sideways compared tothe other
planets ~fs that it underwent some sort of
titanic collision inthe ancient pas, Uranus
tilt causes what NASA considers tobe the
mast extreme seasons inthe Solar System,
For about a quarter ofeach Uranus year ~
or 21 Barth years, as each Uranus year is
84 years long the Sun shines directly over
the north or south pole ofthe planet. That
means for more than two decades on Earth,
half of Uranus never ses the Sun at al,a |
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Scientists would suspect, especially
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Helios
NASA/German
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1990 to 2009
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NASAVESA,
1995 to present
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2001 to 2004
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Climate Observatory
(scove)
NASAYNOAA,
2018 to present
Parker Solar Probe
NASA
2018 to present
Solar Orbiter
A
20200 present
The coldest layer
of the Sun is the
photosphere - the
visible surface’
Sun facts
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Cre enc i
2UNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The
The Solar System would be nothing if
it weren’t for the power and influence
of our nearest star
he Milky Way is home
to billions of stars, and
the universe is home to
billions of galaxies. Our
star, the Sun, has created a
residential spot we call the
Solar System. The Sun is the true centre of
the Solar System: not only does everything,
else orbit around it from asteroids to gas
siants, but it makes up 988 percent of the
Solar System’ mass and is 108 times the
diameter of Earth
This colossus was formed 4.6 billion years
ago from a cloud of dust and gas. After this
cloud began to rotate and collapse it took
50 million years to form and become the
star itis today. This was the point where
the care ofthe star reached pressures
andl temperatures so intense that nuclear
fusion was ignited This ignition Kekstarted
‘the formation of helium from hydrogen,
releasing radiation that provides Earth with
light, warmth, power and so much more.
‘Ac the start ofthe Suns if, planets and
everything else in orbit were stil forming
{rom the leftover debris that began to
fragment. The Sun has been in its mature
state for nearly billion years, and i will
continu tobe for another 5 billion years,
AMter this the hydrogen will run out and the
‘Sun will ook to form heavier elements such
as carbon, oxygen and so on. When this
hhappens the radiation output willbe greater
‘than its gravity and it wil swell into a red
ant, swallowing Mercury and Venus and
‘evaporating al the water and life on Earth
Afterwards the outer layers will be expelled
{nto the cosmos, andl what wil be left a
white dwar sta,
‘The Sun has several zones within ts
Interior and atmosphere, starting with @
core that burns at over 15 milion degrees
Celsus 27 million degrees Fahrenheld). This
takes up roughly a quarter of the distance
to te surface, and outside the core are the
8
Sun
radiation and then the convection zones. The
coldest layer of the Sun isthe photosphere
the visible surface. This is between
6125 and 4,125 degrees Celsius (1,000
and 7.460 degrees Fahrenheit. Next i the
chromosphere and the mysterious corona,
invisible without the ad ofan elipse. The
corona’s temperature ranges fom 1t0 10
million degrees Celsius (7 to 17 milion
degrees Fahrenheit, and is perplexing
to astronomers because i gets hotter the
further away from the Sun you ae,
The activity ofthe Sun creates a magnetic
field that permeates the Solar System,
Because the Sun is essentially a ball of
plasma - matter consisting of ionised gas —
and nota soi it rotates at different speeds
depending omits latitude. This unequal
rotation causes kinks and twists inthe
magnetic eld, creating sunspots and solar
flares, which are usually accompanied
by the expulsion of energetic particles in
the form of solar ind and coronal mass
ejections (CMES) These particles provide
Earth with ts aurorae as they collide with
the Earths upper atmosphere
Ce
prone treyUNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
yy] things
you didn’t know
about Venus
PRR mee Ree mL TCR
og Meee On mC RRR ESTUNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
News from Mercury
Discover some of the fascinating features of the Solar System’s smallest planet
26Cee ad
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I's hellshly hot
Venus she hottest planet inthe Solar
System, even hotter han the daysice of
“Mercury, which has femperatures of 427
degrees Celsius (201 degrees Fahrenheit).
Because of Venus thick, carbon dioxideich
‘atmosphere, the heat Is ticenty retained,
creating surface temperatures higher than
{470 degrees Celsius (280 degrees Fahrenhel).
Venusian volcanicity
To.addto the hellish image of Venu,
‘also has the most volcanoes present on the
‘surface of al the planets in the Solr System,
‘On Earth here are 1.500 known active
volcanoes, and Mars is bes! known forthe
largest volcano inthe Solar System, Olympus
Mons, However, Venus has over 1,400 maior
volcanoes, and thas not including the
‘smaller ones or any that haven't been
elected yet
doesn't have a moon
‘Venus and Mercury ae the only planes in our Solar System that don't have their own
‘moon. I's @ bit more understandable why Mercury doesn't have a moon, because is close
‘roxy fo the Sun hos « negative etfect on any contenders. The planets also smaller than
‘some Solar System moons, such os Satum's tan. However, researchers have orgued thatthe
‘reason Venus doesn't have @ moon sit a simpli. There are two theories: the sis that
‘ony moon that Venus had was stolen by the Sun's gravity. The seconds known as the
‘double-mpact theory, which states hata large celestial body hit Venus billons of years
290, eating a moon ina similar way fo how Earth got ts unar companion. But several
"milion years later, an even bigger object hi Venus, causing its retrograde rotation,
‘weakening he tidal forces and sending the moon fo sink ino Venus, never o be seen again.
9 Earth vs Venus
| The Sun }
‘On Venus, the Sun would oppear no more
‘hana dim glowing pote rough the
‘Venu enveloped in clouds, na allowing
‘ony noreyasronomers to investigate the
‘Stace. While rth elko hon by
‘Shouds, much mee of eu plane's surface
Ieviible trom space.
‘Boxed on past exploration misions, the
‘love of Venus confine rocks a erent
Shades of grey, coring ou! valleys and
‘hing bith To mountains, smal Earth
(i
‘Both planets ecto atest 1,500 active
volcanoes on fhe sre, ond may more
‘ormont ones.Cee
Mercury
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System, Mercury
Pole M UTES)
expected to get
swallowed by the
growing SunA perfect
world for futuristic de
spacecraft re
“Conditions on Venus that
would be favourable for life
could exist in the clouds”
SP Exudmlamaneed
Cee te eee
Ue in the clouds eee ee eer ey
pe Cee en ered
Sen et eo
ear a mee Sere avo ee ene eens
University of Wisconsin-Madson's Space
Science and Engineering Center suggested
‘hat microbial fe could be present inthe rr
eer ot ctr ol} Khorotres Ce ee. See ete
Cond researchers have sald that cantons on ee etre
‘Yorus thot would be favourable for ite could ene eee ey
eine suse ol muaes ot e226 ee eee!
loots Q0t0 32 med. Here, ferrperahres Se ery
Would be roughly 60 degrees Celsius (140 pee tea eee nner]
degrees Fahrenhel) and pressures would be neseven-year
joumey a
to Mercury
20 October 2018
Launch from Earth,
10 Aprit 2020
Earth flyby.
15 October 2020
First Venus flyby.
10 August 2021
‘Second Venus flyby.
1 October 2021
First Mercury flyby.
9 January 2025
Sixth and final Mercury
flyby.
5 December 2025
Orbital insertion
‘around Mercury.
Exploring the past and future
ry Re lim doit e
Pore reer
poet
rerics Dee eer ray
Visited the small planet. NASA has been the Eufopean Space Agency (ESA) and
[ok a eres Soe
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eer Teen eteLae
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2UNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Scientists get a
gruesome look
at how our Sun will
eat planets
Peering into our Solar System’s future
nneday our Sun will and increasing its brightness by several model the physical processes occurring at
expand into a red orders of magnitude for several thousands each scale,” said Ricardo Yarza, a graduate
siant and engulf ot years astronomy student atthe University of
its closest planets, The study was conducted using a California, Santa Cruz, and lead scientist
and a new study ‘method called hydrodynamical simulations of the stud: “Instead, we simulate a small
now explores how and provides a glimpse nto the possible _secton ofthe star centred on the planet to
these devoured planets can influence the future scenarios of our own Solar System's understand the flow around the planet and.
processes insde the dying star. When stars evolution. Because ofthe sizeof red glant measure the drag forces acting ni.”
the size of our Sun run out ofhydrogen stars, the researchers had to model only, Nt only could the results provide a
in thelr cores, they balloon into red giants small section ofthe boundary where __glimpse into what will happen 5 billion
that can be more than ten times larger _the stars meet the planets to gain inlepth years from now when our Sun turns into
than the original star. As these red giants insights into the interactions. “Evolved 8 red giant, ut they could aso explain
engulf the planets that orbit them, many stars can be hundreds or even thousands recent findings of planets orbiting white
things can happen. Engulfing large planets, of times larger than their planets, and dwarfs, the burned-out stellar corpses into
ten or more times the size of Jupiter, can this disparity of scales makes it dificult which stars turn after the red giant phase
trigger the star into shedding its envelope to perform simulations that accurately These studies, exploring the end stages of
this planetary engulfinent, suggest that
orth wile a0 scorched by Some planets may survive being burnt by
the expanding Sun ht
the red giants.
In our Solar System, the closest planets
to the Sun Mercury and Venus ~ are
expected to get swallowed by the growing
Sun entirely. Earth, while it may survive
‘ill be so scorched that it will become
completely uninhabitable. Some ofthe
‘more distant and currently freezing cold
bodies, such as Jupiter, Saturn and their
‘moons, may develop more lifefriendly
conditions in the vicinity ofthe blown-up
Sun. While only a few planets that have
likely survived a red giant enguliment
have been observed so far, researchers
believe that further studies of exoplanets
will lead to mare such discoveries
22UNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Mercury
This minute world is arguably the least
explored of the four terrestrial planets
ercury isthe smallest
ofall the planets in
the Solar System and
the closest planet to
the Sun, but there's
so much mare to it.
Mercury is so tiny compared tothe other
planets that you can actualy fit around
23,500 Mercurys into Jupiter, though
its roughly 1,400 kilometres (870 miles)
larger in diameter than the Moon.
‘The small planet orbits the Sun with
less than half the distance between the
sun and Earth, resulting in it being
‘tidally locked, Tidal locking occurs when
an object isso close to its host that the
sravity is overwhelmingly powerful;
Dhecause ofthis influence, instead of
continuously spinning on its axis like
Earth does, the object has one side facing
towards its host object at al times. tn this
case Mercury is tidally locked to the Sun
For every two revolutions around the Sun,
Mercury rotates on its axis three times,
ach orbit takes 88 Earth days, making a
year on Mercury roughly a quarter of an,
Earth year
‘As Mercury is so close tothe Sun, the
surface temperatures can be scorching,
reaching highs of 450 degrees Celsius
(G40 degrees Fahrenheit). Enduring this
Dhombardment of solar radiation, the
planet also struggles to keep hold ofits
atmosphere, meaning that no heat is
‘wapped. This means the nightside ofthe
planet - the one facing away from the Sun
can have temperatures as law as 180
degrees Celsius (290 degrees Fahrenhel.
While Mercury i a similar size to the
Moon, ifs also similar in appearance, Its
‘a heavily cratered, rocky body with some
of the largest craters in the Solar System
One such crater studied by previous
exploration missions is a great example.
The Caloris Basin, whichis roughly
1,550 kilometres (960 miles) wide, is
about the sizeof Texas and was formed
‘when an asteroid about 100 kilometres
(Go miles) across hit Mercury's surface
{billion years ago, impacting the planet
‘with energy equivalent o a trillion one
rmegatonne bombs.
Ifyou scratch beneath the surface,
the true weirdness of Mercury starts to
become apparent. Under the ultra-thin
cratered crust is an extremely dense
planet, with somewhere between 70,
and 85 per cent of the planet being an
enormous iron core, Astronomers have
spent years constraini
solid, molten or both, and they seem to
agree it has a solid iron core with an
juter molten core, Astronomers believe
that a molten core explains Mercury's
very weak magnetic fed. After data was
brought back from NASA’ Mariner 10
and MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space
Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging)
space probes and analysed, astronomers
posited that Mercury s the exposed core
ofa much larger planet, with its outer
layers lost to a powerful collision billions
of years ago.
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PaUNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
News from Earth
What's happening on our home planet?
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What are planets
like on the inside?
Even among the worlds of our Solar System we
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he terrestrial planets~ crust Like Venus, there must not be
Mercury, Venus, Earth and convection in the core, as Mars has no e
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rocky crust. Mercury is around 70 per cent its atmosphere I's thought that Jupiter has
‘metallic and 30 percent rocky. Its core isa dense core, possibly rocky, surrounded
‘thought to comprise as much as 85 per by ‘metallic’ hydrogen. This i a strange
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Although i's often retened to os
Earth's win, something that eiterentiates
the two planets deep down to thelr cores is
‘hat Venus creates « negligible magnetic
field, Planetary scientists boieve that Venus
hae anon core thats a similar size to
Ears, However, th sluggish rotation of
Venus, which consequently reduces the
‘motion ofthe planets core, weakens the
plane's magnetic fel, or magnetosphere
Itshad many ‘The case of the
spacecratt visitors missing lightning
Before attention fumed tothe exploration of There are electrical pulses bursting through
Mars, Venus was where space agencies the heavy atmosphere, but missions to
‘wanted to send heir obotlc missions to. This Venus o find them have made things even
‘genesis of interplanetary exploration began more confusing, Ground based telescopes
with alot of spacecraft and launch failures, and space probes alike, including the ESA's
starting with the Soviet Union's Tyazhely ‘Venus Express and the Japan Aerospace
Sputnik in February 1961, which experienced Exploration Agency's UAXA) Akatsuki, have
ounch fallue, Here have since been 45. had nothing more than some subtle hints
‘other missions launched with the intention about he presence of Venusion lightning.
‘of expoting the planet. Of these misions, Researchers believe it could sill be present,
‘more than 20have been successful The just much more localised and rare, which is
very ts! fo conduct a successtul planetary why here has been no definive evidence
‘encounter was NASA's Mariner 2 space yet Orit could be the cose that there ist
probe on 1é December 1942 lightning at
Soviet success at Venus
Betore the itsoltion of he Soviet Union in 1991, he country was prominent in Venus
‘exploration missions inthe 1970s and 1980s. One histvic mission that he Soviets conducted.
‘wos Venera 7 in December 1970, which became the fist mission fo land on a diferent
planet. Then, in March 1982, he Venera 13 landee managed to survive Venue’ extreme:
femperatures and pressures fran astonishing two hours.UNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Earth
The rocky world that we call home
is full of wonders
rather pretty blue
and-white planet
orbiting an otherwise
obscure G-type main
sequence star, Earth
is notable largely for
being the only place in the universe to
have evolved organic life. Other than this
uirk of chemistry, the third planet from
the Sun also has active plate tectonics,
and its one of the few planets whose
:moon fits perfectly aver its Sun during an
eclipse. It is the densest planet in its Solar
System, and the largest of the four rocky
planets closest tots star. An atmosphere
100 kilometres (62 miles) thick coats
the planet, offering it protection from
ultraviolet light given out by its nearest
star thanks to it layer of ozone. Heating
of the upper atmosphere means its slowly
losing its hydrogen and helium into space,
Dutata very slow rate
‘With its thick atmosphere and yellow
sunlight, much of Earths vegetation is
green. Its positon at around 150 mailion
Jlometres (93 million miles) from is star
‘means liquid water is commonplace on its
surface - both salty and non-salty forms,
freezing atthe poles - though a recent
‘nerease in atmospheric carbon dioxide
levels is causing this ice to melt. Unlike its
neighbour Mars, biological ie flourishes
Doth in Earth’ oceans and on the third of
the planet not covered with water.
‘An axial tt of 235 degrees leads to
seasons on Earth, which combine with
Doth atmospheric and oceanic circulations
to produce a variety of weather types,
some of them extreme. A single natural
satllte is tdally locked tothe planet,
nd its gravitational pull affect the
‘water level beneath it, causing tides.
Along with many artificial satelite,
Earth also has a small number of quasi:
satellites, mostly captured asteroids
circulating around Lagrange points L4
and L5 in horseshoe orbits
Earth is currently 20,000 years into an
interglacial period, pat ofa cycle of ice
ages that sees glaciers coat large parts of
the planet over periods of up to 500,000
‘years. The current interglacial should end
in around 25,000 years, though warming
caused hy increased atmospheric carbon.
dioxide levels could delay this by trapping
heat within the atmosphere.
Im abbillion years time, the energy
received by Earth from its star will have
increased by ten per cent, enough for the
daceans to be lost thanks to a combination
of subduction into the planet's mantle and
photodissociation ofthe water molecules
by increased levels of ultraviolet light
Without surface water, plate tectonics will
come toa halt. Earth will become similar
to ts neartwin Venus, witha runaway
‘greenhouse effect eventually raising the
surface temperature to 1.330 degrees
Celsius (2426 degrees Fahrenheid.
'm another 5 billion years, the Sun will
run out of hydrogen to burn in its core
and will begin the process of swelling
lnc a red gant. As it expands, Earth,
along with Venus and Mercury, will be
engulfed by its chromosphere, Tidal forces
will beak up the Moon, briefly turning
It into a ring system before the surface
and mantle are stripped from the Earth,
leaving only its core. The final legacy of
Earth will bean increase inthe Sun's
metal content of 0.01 per cent
Perens
omnenrenyThe Evolution of
Planet earth
54 billion years ago
Earth formed from a
protoplanetary disc around
‘a young ster.
45 billion years ago
Dense elements sank to the
centre, forming Earth's core, while the
‘outside layer cooled and solidified,
4.48 billion years ago.
‘A massive impact with
‘another body sent a portion of Earth's
‘crust into orbit, forming
the Moon.
44 billion years ogo
Volcanism released water
‘vapour into Earth's amosphere,
raining down to begin the formation
of oceans.
35 billion years ago
Earth's magnetic fleld wos
established, with a magnetosphere
‘about half the modem radius.
750 milion years ago
The earliest known
supercontinent, Rodinia, began to
break apart.
180 million years ago
The most recent
supercontinent, Pangaea,
broke apart
65 million years ago
Formation of the Himalayas
began as the Indian subcontinent
diifed into Asia,
6 milion years ago
‘Assmall Atfican ape
began a family tree that led fo a
dominant species.
Earth facts
¥ fe
Surface Water and Ocean
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MaKe ae OR aCe
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weears the fourth
planet from the
Sun, Befiting the
Red Planets bloody
colour, the Romans
named it after their
god of war. The bright rust colour Mars
is known for is due to iron-rich minerals
{nits regolith ~the loose dust and rock
covering its surface, The sol of Earth i @
Kind of regolith too, albeit one loaded with
organic content. Te iron minerals on Mars
oxidise or rus, causing its soi to look red.
‘The planet’ thin atmosphere means
liguid water lkely cannot exist on the
‘Martian surface for any appreciable length
of time. Features called recurring slope
lineae may have spurts of briny water
flowing onto the surface, but this evidence
{is disputed; some scientists argue the
hydrogen spotted from orbit in tis region
‘may instead indicate briny salts. This
‘means that although this desert planet is
just half the diameter of Earth, it has the
same amount of dry land.
‘The Red Planet is home to both the
highest mountain and the deepest, longest
valley inthe Solar System. Olympus Mons
is roughly 25 kilometres (16 miles) high
bout tree times as tll as Mount Everest,
‘while the Valles Mariners system of
valleys - named after the Mariner 9 probe
that discovered it~ reaches as deep as ten
Jllometres (six miles) and runs east to west,
for roughly 4,000 kilometres (2.500 miles),
About one-fifth the distance around Mars
and close to the width of Australia.
Scientists think that Vales Marineris
formed mostly by rifting of the crust as it
got stretched, Individual canyons within
the system are up to 100 kilometres (60
miles) wide, The canyons merge in the
central part of Valles Marineris in a region
600 kilometres (370 miles) wide. Large
channels emerging from the ends of some
canyons andl layered sediments within
suggest that the canyons might once have
been filled with liquid water. Mars also
has the largest voleanoes inthe Solar
System - Olympus Mons being ane of
them, The massive voleano, which is about
600 kilometres (370 miles) in diameter,
{is wide enough to cover the state of New
‘Mexico. Olympus Mons isa shield voleano,
‘with slopes that rise gradually lke those
of Hawallan volcanoes, and was created
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‘and withthe added help of buoyancy, robotic misions could
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Rewinding
the clock
"Much lke Mars, Venus could have once supported ie. 700,
millon years ago, Venus sutfered dramatic changes in its
imate that saw it bulk up is cimosphere in a proces known
{8 « Tunaway greenhouse effec’. Belore he runaway
greenhouse etect took over it's believed that Venus had a
reasonable atmosphere and could have harboured liquid
water for about 20 Silion years. Bofore carbon
loxide dominated the atmosphere and made ittoo
ho! and dense is possible that Venus had an
‘environment hat could have supported
Me for blions of yours.
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era ed cee en
pare Me er ey eee casMars effort, Tianwen-1. Hope arrived
in February 2021 and is studying the
atmosphere, weather and climate,
Tanwen-2, which consists ofan orbiter
and a lander-rover duo, also reached Mars
orbit in February 2021,
Robots aren't the only ones getting
4 ticket to Mars. A workshop group of
scientists from government agencies,
academia and industry have determined
that a NASAIed manned mission to Mars
should be possible by the 2030s. Robotic
missions have seen much success in
the past few decades, but it remains a
considerable challenge to get people to
Mars. With current technology it would
take at least six months for people to
travel to Mars, Red Planet explorers
‘would therefore be exposed for long
stretches to deep space radiation and
to microgravity, which has devastating
effects on the human bods. Performing
activities in the moderate gravity of Mars
could prove extremely dificult after many
‘months in microgravity Research into the
elfets of microgravity continues on the
International space Station in preparation
NASA srt the only entity with crewed
Mars aspirations, Other nations, including
nen vtontonce ll
china and Russa, have also announced
thei goals for sending humans tothe Red
Planet, And Fon Musk, the founder and
CEO of SpaceX has long stressed that he
established the company back in 2002
primarily o help humanity ste the Red
Manet, spaceX i currently developing
and testing a fully reusable deep space
transportation system called Starship
which Musk hellves isthe breakthrough
needed t0 get people to Mars at ong est.
> spac
Charles @.Choi
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Chosiesisa contributing wnor
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esphyics
Robert Lea
Robie awit withadegreo
Imphysies and astronomy. Me
spectalses nphyaies, astionomy,
shephyses and quantum prisesUNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Labeled Release life detection experiment,
orever maintained that the landers sped
evidence of microbial metabolism in the
‘Martian dit.
‘The next two craft to successfully reach
the Red Planet were Mars Pathfinder, a
lander, and Mars Global Surveyor, an
orbiter, both NASA craft that launched in
1996. small robot on board Pathfinder,
called Sojourner, ecame the first wheeled
rover ever to explore the surface of
‘another planet, venturing over the
planet’ surface and analysing rocks for
95 Earth days.
In. 2001, NASA launched the Mars
‘Odyssey orbiter, which discovered vast
amounts of water ice beneath the Martian
surface, mostly inthe upper metre (three
feet) It remains uncertain whether more
‘water lies underneath, since the probe
cannot see water any deeper.
In 2003, Mars passed closer to Earth
than ithad at any time inthe past 60,000,
years. That same year, NASA launched
The Viking landers took the first close-up
pictures of the Martian surface, but found
‘wo golf-cartsized rovers, named
Spirit and Opportunity, which explored
‘lifferent regions ofthe Martian surface
after touching down in January 2004.
Both rovers found many signs that water
‘once flowed on the surface, Spirit and
‘Opportunity were originally tasked with
‘three-month surface missions, but both
kept roving for far longer than that. NASA
didn’t declare Spirit dead until 2011, and
‘Opportunity was stil going strong until
‘that dust storm hit in mid-2018,
‘Next in 2008, NASA sent a lander called
Phoenix to the far-northern plains of
Mars, The robot confirmed the presence of
‘water ice in the near subsurface, among
‘other finds. n 2011, NASA Mars Science
Laboratory mission sent the Curiosity
rover to investigate Mars’ past potential to
host life. Not long after landing inside the
Red Planet's Gale erater in August 2012 the
‘ar-sized robot determined thatthe area
‘hosted a longved, potentially habitable
lakeand-stream system inthe ancient pas
no strong evidence for life
Curiosity has als discovered complex:
‘organic molecules and documented.
‘seasonal fluctuations in methane
‘concentrations in the atmosphere,
‘But NASA isnt the only interested party.
‘The ESA has two spacecraft orbiting the
planet: Mars Express and the Trace Gas
‘Orbiter, Also, in September 2014, India's
Mars Orbiter Mission reached the Red
Planet, making it the fourth nation to
successfully enter orbit around Mars.
In November 2018, NASA landed a
stationary craft called InSight on the
surface. Insight is investigating Mars'
Internal structure and composition,
primarily by measuring and characterising,
‘marsquakes, NASA also launched the life-
hunting Perseverance rover in July 2020.
Perseverance landed an the floor of Mars"
Jezero crater in February 2021 along with
tiny test helicopter known as Ingenuity.
2020 also saw the launch ofthe United
‘Arab Emirates’ fist Mars mission, Hope,
‘and Chinas frst fully homegrown,UNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Ce oa
Peierls
Mars’ atmosphere, causing temporary
warming periods that allowed water
to flow.
‘Mars i 6791 kilometres (4,220 miles) in
diameter — far smaller than Earth which
1s 12,756 kilometres (7,926 miles) wide.
‘The Red Planet i about ten per cent as
massive as our home, with a gravitational
pull 38 per cent as strong. A 454logram
person here an Barth would weigh just
28 kllograms on Mars, but their mass
‘would be the same on hoth planets. The
atmosphere of Mars is 95.32 percent
carbon dioxide, 2.7 per cent nitrogen, 1.6
per cent argon, 0.13 per cent oxygen and
(08 per cent carbon monoxide, with minor
amounts of water, nitrogen oxide, neon,
heavy water, krypton and xenon,
‘Mars lot its global magnetic fela
about 4 billion years ago, leading to the
stripping of much ofits atmosphere by
the solar wind, But there are regions of
the planet’ crus today that can beat least
ten times more strongly magnetised than
anything measured on Earth, suggesting
those regions are remnants ofan ancient
slobal magnetic eld, Mars likely nas @
solid core composed of iron, nickel and
sulphur. The mantle is probably similar
to Earth’ in that it's composed mostly of
peridotite, made up of silicon, oxygen, iron
and magnesium. The crust is probably
rade ofthe voleani rock basal, wich
Js also common in the crusts of Earth and
the Moon although some crustal rocks,
especially in the northern hemisphere,
may be a form of andesite, a voleanic rock
that contains more silica than basalt does
[NASA InSight lander has heen probing
the Martian interior since touching dawn,
near the planets equator in November
2018, Insight measures and characterises
marsquakes, and mission team members
are tracking wobbles in Mars tit over
lime by precisely tacking the lander's
position on the planet surface. Data has
revealed key insights about Mars’ internal
$ serueture. insight team members recently
# estimated thatthe planet's coe i 1,780
to 2080 kilometres (1110 t0 1,300 miles)
‘wide, Insight observation also suggest
that Mars’ crust i 24 to 72 kilometres
(14 t0 45 miles) thick on average, with
the mantle making up the rest of the
planet’ non atmospheric volume. For
comparison, Earth's core Is about 7,100peiert
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eetohave a fluffy texture, lke freshly fallen
snow. Mars is much colder than Earth,
in large part due to its greater distance
from the Sun. The average temperature
is about 60 degrees Celsius (80 degrees
Fahwenheid) although it can vary from -125
grees Celsius (195 degrees Fahrenheit)
neat the poles during the winter to as
such as 20 degrees Celsius (70 degrees
Fahrenheit at midday near the equator
‘The carbon-dioxiderich atmosphere of
‘Mars is about 100 times ess dense than
Earths on average, but it is nevertheless
thick enough to support weather, clouds
and winds. The density ofthe atmosphere
varies seasonally as winter forces carbon
ioxide to freeze out of the Martian ar. In
the ancient past, the atmosphere was likely
significantly thicker and abe to support
‘water flowing on the planet’ surface. Over
time, lighter molecules in the Martian
atmosphere escaped under pressure
from the solar wind, which affected the
atmosphere because Mars doesn't have a
slobal magnetic field This process is being
studied today by NASA Mars Atmosphere
and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission
[NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found
the first definitive detections of carbon:
dioxide snow clouds, making Mars the only
‘body inthe Solar System known to host
such unusual winter weather. The Red
Planet also causes water-ice snow to fall
fram the clouds.
The dust storms on Mars are the largest
In the Solar system, capable of blanketing
the entire planet and lasting for months.
(One theory as to why dust forms can grow
so big on Mars is because the airborne
dust particles absorb sunlight, warming
the Martian atmosphere in their vicinity
‘Warm pockets of air then flow towards
colder regions, generating winds. Strong
‘winds lit mare dust off the ground, which
In turn heats the atmosphere, raising more
‘wind and kicking up more dust. These
storms can pose serious risks to robots on
the Martian surface. NASA's Opportunity
rover ‘died? after being engulfed ina giant
2018 storm, which blocked sunlight from
reaching the robots solar panels for weeks
ata time,
‘Mars les farther from the Sun than
Earth does, so the Red Planet has a longer
‘year ~ 687 days compared to 363 for our
home world, But the two planets have
simular day lengths; i takes about 24 hours
and 40 minutes for Mars to complete one
rotation around its axis. The axis of Mars,
lke Earth’, is tted in relation co the Sun
‘This means that ike Farth, the amount of
sunlight falling on certain parts ofthe Red
Planet can vary during the year, giving
Mars seasons
However, the seasons that Mars
experiences are more extreme than
Earth's because the Red Planet’ eliptical
oval-shaped orbit is more elongated than
that of any of the other major planets
‘When Mars is loses othe Sun, its
southern hemisphere istited towards
four star, giving the planeta shor, warm
summer, while the northern hemisphere
experiences a short, cold winter. When
Mars i farthest from the Sun, che northern.
hemisphere is tilted towards it, giving the
planet along. mild summer, while the
southern hemisphere experiences a long,
cold winter.
‘The tilt of the Red Planet’ axis
swings wildly overtime because i's
not stabilised by a large moon. This has
Jed to diferent climates on the Martian
surface throughout its history. A 2017
study suggests thatthe changing tt also
influenced the release of methane into
I ceric
el
‘face for Forth viewingUNDERSTANDING THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Jupiter
The largest planet has a lot to tell us,
and Juno is on the case
ith inthe eight planet through its orbit over 2,000 have
lineup of our Solar System, been discovered and its great mass
Jupiter also happens to be means that the centre of gravity for it
the largest, and by quite and the Sun lies above the Sun's surface,
some distance. The mass of meaning they act almost like a binary
this gigantic bal of gas is__system. The giant planet's gravity well
‘two-and-a-half times that ofall the other also means it can intercept comets and
planets put together, and you could fit asteroids heading into the inner Solar
11.2 Earths within its radius, While there's System and may partially shield the inner
likely a rocky core somewhere under the planets from bombardment. Another
enormous gaseous atmosphere, scientists theory is that it draws small bodies in
can’t be sure whether it's solid or not, but from the Kuiper Belt. Whichever is true,
gravitational measurements suggest t Jupiter experiences 200 times mare
‘ould make up as much a6 15 percent of impacts than Earth
Jupiter's mass. Galileo discovered Jupiter’ four
‘What is known i that Jupiter is largest moons, known asthe Galilean
contracting, and this generates more ‘moons, in 1610 ~ the first time moons
hheat than the planet receives from the had been observed around another
Sun, warming the huge number of moons planet. Humanity has since explored
that orbit around it. also has a faint the planet with observatories and space
ing system — too thin tobe seen from probes, beginning in 1973 with a fyby
Earth with any but the largest telescopes by Ploneer 10, Many missions to the
and first spoted by the Voyager 1 probe outer Solar System have used Jupiter's
in 1979, gravity asa slingshot to correct their
Jupiter plays a major role in many course or gain speed, but the first eraft
theories of the formation of our Solar to orbit the planet was the aptly named
System. In the grand tack hypothesis, Galileo in 1995
Jupiter formed at 3.5 astronomical units
(AU) ~ 1 AU is the Farth-Sun distance
before plunging inward towards the Sun
‘until t reached 1.5 AU, then reversing
course and moving out again, stopping at
its current distance of 5.2 AU. It erossed
the asteroid belt twice, scattering rocks in
all directions and contributing tothe low
‘mass of the belt today. It may also have
caused rocky planets orbiting closer to
the Sun to crash into the star’ surface
This answers questions such as why Mars
4s so small - Jupiter's presence limited
‘the material available for its formation
‘and why there are no large planets
orbiting close to the Sun, as we see in ea ey
other solar systems Leeann
Jupiter has also had a long-lasting effect < bene mint med
on the resto the Soar Sytem. thas aj Cope tcs,
feet of asteroids and comets that foow 2 aetna
50lometres (4400 miles) wide ~ bigger than
‘Mars itself ~ and its mantle is oughly
2,900 kilometres (1,800 miles) thick. Earth
has two kinds of crust, continental and
‘oceanic. Average thicknesses are about 40
Jlometres (25 miles) and eight kilometres
(five miles) respectively
The two moons of Mars, Phobos and
Deimos, were discovered by American
astronomer Asaph Hall over the course
ff a week in 1877, Hall had almost given
up his search for a moon of Mars, but his
Wife urged him on. He discovered Deimos,
the next night, and Phobos six days after
that He named the moons after the sons
of the Greek war god Ares - Phobos means
“fear, while Deimos means ‘dread’. Both
are likely made of carbon-ich rock mixed
‘with ice and are covered in dust and loose
rocks. They ae tiny next to Earth's Moon
and are irregularly shaped since they ack
fenough gravity to pull themselves into a
‘more circular form, The widest Phobos
gets is about 27 kilometres (17 miles)
and the widest Deimos ges is roughly 15
Jelometres (nine miles
Both moons are pockmarked with
craters from meteor impacts. The surface
(of Phobos also possesses an intricate
pattern of grooves, which may be cracks
that formed after an impact created the
moon’ largest crater ~a hole about ten
Jelometres (six miles) wide, nearly half
the width of Phobos. The two satellites
always show the same face to their parent
planet, just as our Moon does to Earth
remains uncertain how Phobos and
Deimos formed. They may be former
asteroids that were captured by Mars
gravitational pull, or they may have
formed in orbit around Mars at roughly
the same time the planet came into
existence. Ultraviolet light reflected from
Phobos provides strong evidence that the
:moon isa captured asterold. Phobos is
sradually spiraling towards Mars, drawing
bout 18 metres (six feet) closer to the
Red Planet each century. Within 50 million
years, Phobos will ether smash into Mars
Or break up and form a ring of debris
around the planet.
‘The first person to observe Mars with
telescope was Galileo Galilei in 1610,
1m the following century astronomers
iscovered the planets polar ice caps. In
‘the 19th and 20dh centuries, some - most
‘The Perseverance rover captures a plus a i selects boulder fo it
famously Percival Lowell ~ believed
they saw a network of long, straight
canals on Mars that hinted at a possible
civilisation, However, these sightings
proved to be mistaken interpretations of
‘geological features.
|Anumber of Martian rocks have
fallen to Earth over the aeons, providing
Scientists with a rare opportunity to study
pieces of Mars without having to leave
‘ou planet, One of the mast controversial
finds was Allan Hills 84001 (AL84001)
=a Martian meteorite that may contain
tiny fossils and other evidence of Mars
lite, Other researchers have cast doubt
on this hypothesis, but the team behind
the famous 1996 study have held firm
to their interpretation, andthe debate
about ALHB4001 continues toda: In 2018,
separate meteorite study found that
organic molecules ~ the carbon-containing
building blocks of if, although not
necessarily evidence of life ise - could
have formed on Mars through batterylike
chemical reactions.
Robotic spacecraft began observing
Mars inthe 1960s, with the US launching
Mariner 4 in 1964 and Mariners 6 and 7
in 1969. Those early missions revealed
Mars tobe a barren world, without any
signs of life or the elvilisaions people such
as Lowell had imagined there, n 1971
Mariner 9 orbited Mars, mapping about
80 per cent ofthe planet and discovering,
its voleanoes and canyons. The Soviet
Union also launched numerous Red Planet
spacecraft inthe 1960s and early 1970s,
Dbut most of those missions filed. Mars 2
and Mars 3 operated successfully, but were
"unable to map the surface due to dust
storms. NASA’ Viking 1 lander touched
down on the surface of Mars in 1976,
pulling off the first successful landing on
the Red Planet ts twin, Viking 2, landed
six weeks later in a diferent Mars region,
‘The Viking landers ook the first close:
up pictures of the Martian surface, but
found no strong evidence for life. Again,
however, there has heen debate: Gilbert
Levin, prinelpal investigator of the Vikings
45PIMC
‘83D mage of Olympus Mons, the orges!,
the surface i
the southern hemisphere is extremely od,
and so has many craters ~ including the
planet largest, 2,300-kllometre (100.
mile) Hellas Planitia - while the northern
Much of the surface of
hemisphere is younger and so has
fevver craters, Some voleanoes also have
just a few craters, which suggests they
erupted recently, with the resulting lava
covering up any old craters. Some crater
have unusual deposits of debris around
them resembling solidified mudflows
Indicating that the imp:
underground water oF ice.
12018, the European Space
hich have been found to host microbes.
Mars Express also sped a huge,
in Korolev crater. Vast deposit of v
appear tobe finely layered stacks of
rater ice and dust extend from the
poles to latitudes of about 80 degrees in
both Martian hemispheres, These were
probably
leposited by the atmosphere
p of much
ofthese layered deposits in both
hemispheres are caps of water ice that
i spans of time. On
remain frozen year-round,
‘Additional seasonal caps of frost appear
inthe wintertime, These are made of slid
carbon dioxide, also known as ‘dry ice’
(ESA) Mars Express spacecraft detected hich has
what could be a slurry of water and grains gas inthe atmosphere - Mars! thin air
is about 95 per cent carbon dioxide by
ne In the deepest part of the winter
this frost can extend from the poles t
-ondensed from carbon dioxide
underneath the icy Planum Australe,
This body of water is sald to be about
20 kilometres (12.4 miles) across. I
under
similar undergro
latitudes as low as 45 degrees, or halfw
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‘The Solar System began to
form from a cloud of gas and dust
‘around a new star.
‘4596 billion years ago
Jupiter and Satum began
{0 take shope,
2400 BCE
Babylonians tracked 0
{ull cyclo of Jupiter's movement
‘across the skies.
270 BCE
Jupiter was part of
‘Adistarchus of Samos’ heliocentric
‘model of the Solar System.
1610
Galileo discovered the
Galilean moons: Ganymede,
Callisto, lo and Europa.
3 December 1974
Pioneer 11 passed within
142,500 kilometres (26,400 miles) of
Jupiter's cloud tops.
5 March 1979
Voyager 1 performed a
flyby of the gas giant planet.
‘8 December 1995
The Galileo probe entered
Jupiter orbit.
5 July 2016
The Juno probe entered a
polar orbit around the planet.
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einerand its outer neighbouring satellites warms Solar System after Jupiter's Ganymede, surviving fragment ofa moon that was
the moon’ south polar region, creating —-A.combination of high gravity and cold once much larger. lapetus, which rivals,
reservoirs of liquid water just beneath conditions allow Titan to hold onto a Rhea in size, has starkly contrasting light
the ley crust. As the surface flexes, water substantial atmosphere, making it one and dark hemispheres, the end result of a
escapes into space, shooting huge plumes ofa kind among Solar System satelites. complex process that begins with lapetus
of vapour high above the moon’ surface. ‘This atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, picking up dust that spirals Saturnovards
Enceladus’ near-surface liguid water but a small amount of methane forms from its dark outer neighbour Phoebe.
‘makes ita prime candidate in the search clouds that render it an opaque orange. Phoebe itself's the largest of more than
{or life elsewhere in the Solar System, When the Cassini probe’ infrared 50 outer ‘rregular* moons - small ey
The centrepiece of Saturn's moon cameras plerced this vell, they revealed a bodlies that fllor tilted, elongated and
system, the appropriately named Titan, curiously Earthlike landscape with eroded sometimes backward orbits. Grouped into
dwarfs all the other satelites. With a ‘continents and lowlying plains that several distinct faalies, they are thought
diameter of 5,149 kilometres (3,199 miles), resemble ocean basins. With an average _1o be the fragmented remains of comets
it the seconctargest moon in the entire temperature of -179 degrees Celsius C111 or asteroids from the outer Solar System,
degrees Fahrenheit), Tian’ terrain has captured by Saturn’ gravity ong after
been shaped by both cryovolcanic activity their formation. Together, the outer limits
and a'methane cle’ resembling Earth's of their distant orbits extend the Limits
‘water cycle, This involves the volatile ofthis dazzling system to more than 30
chemical shifting between atmospheric milion Kilometres (18.6 mllion rales)
25, slid ice and liquid rain that erodes fom Saturn itself.
the surface and gathers in lakes around
the moon's winter pole
‘The final two large moons are also AE) olteshas degroesin astronomy
Cost coped ing shadows con by rogues inrguing,Sponglike and misshapen ndvciece communica
Sunrone overtne southern face of henge Hyperion isa mere 360 kilometres Sd arficles onallaspects of
‘shone Saturn's 2009 equinox (223 miles) long, and is thought to be a ‘ouniveseanus and Neptune
could be stranger
than we once thought.
On the surface these
two planets ~ roughly
midway in size between
arth and Jupiter seem unassuming.
M diferent from one another. Uranus
is a featureless, pale-azure planet, and
[Neptune a deep-blue one with white cloud
bands and a dark storm system similar
{o Jupiter Great Red Spot. But at heart
they may be much more alike, as well as
unlike anything we would encounter on
Earth, Studies are showing that in terms
of chemistry, density, temperature and
pressure, the interiors ofthese worlds
have the complexity of a Shakespearean
character, and even that they may
have actual diamond rain
Although NASAS pioneering Voyager
2 spacecraft visited both planets in 1986
and 1989, sending back a wealth of images
andl data, no spacecraft has heen to either
‘world since, That may be due to the fact
that Uranus and Neptune are the last two
official planets, lying at the planetary
edges of our Solar System 2.9 and 45
bilon kilometres (18 and 2.8 bilion
mile) from the Sun respectively. Much
of our information - and all of our up
close images of these worlds - come from
Uranus and
Neptune are
generally thought of
as ‘failed’ versions of
Jupiter and Saturn
‘Voyager 2, although both are studied by
‘ground and space-based telescopes.
‘The giant planets formed in the outer
Solar System where hydrogen and helium
‘were more abundant, Clearly Uranus and
Neptune aren't small and rocky ke the
planets of the inner Solar System. But
nor do they quite reach the status of
‘gas giant’ lke Jupiter and Saturn, even
though they have similar bulk
compositions of hydrogen and helium by
percentage. They belong to a class oftheir
wn: so-called ‘ce giants. The ce refers
to some of the volatile chemicals found -
mostly - deep within
One scientist, Professor Jonathan
Fortney of the University of California,
Santa Cruz, says: “Uranus and Neptune
are generally thought of as faled
versions of Jupiter and Saturn. They did
not accrete tens to hundreds of Earth
‘masses of hydrogen and helium, probably
because there was less gas father from
the Sun by the time they formed.” Fortney
Is a member ofthe science team for @
proposed future mission tothe ice giants
led by NASAS Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Goddard Space Fight Center and the
uropean Space Agency
‘Hydrogen and helium would also have
‘evaporated close to the Sun once it
started shining. This volatility also applies
to the ices, which include ammonia, water
and methane compounds. Water might
seem like a surprising addition, bu its
liquid on Earth because of the pressure
of our atmosphere, if you discount
temperature variations
‘The current broad consensus by
planetary sclentist is that both planets
have rocky iron-nickel Mars to Earth
sized cores; ud, fey mandes that are 10
to 25 times Earth's mass — ith Uranus?
calculated tobe 13.4 times ~ and hydrogen:
82.5%
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mystery, but recent studies ofthe way
ic affects the planet’ rings suggests it is
probably fuzzy or diffuse, amounting to
about 17 Earth masses of material and
extending 60 per cent ofthe way to the
surface, where it becomes mixed with
the metallic hydrogen above. Deep within
the planet, one or more mechanisms
generate vast amounts of heat, allowing
Saturn to radiate 25 times more energy
‘than it receives from the Sun, In part
this is probably due to a wellunderstood
‘mechanism of gravitational contraction
that sifts denser material towards the
core, but it likely that other chemical and
physical processes within the liquid layers
also play a role
Although all four ofthe Solar Systems
siant planets are now known to have
rings of one kind or another, Saturn’ are
by forthe brightest and most extensive
They were first spotted by Galileo Galilei
in 1610, though his crude telescope could
only show that the planet appeared
strangely elongated. It wasn't until 1659
‘that Christiaan Huygens realised the
true structure of the rings as a broad
but thin dise around the planet, which
disappears from view when the plane of
‘the rings lines up with Earth twice in each
Saturnian year
The two brightest rings, stretching to
about 24 times Saturn's diameter, are
designated A and B, and are separated by
a mostly empty gap, the Cassini Division.
Inward of the B Ring lies the C Ring, semi
‘transparent ut stil visible from Earth
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‘while a tenuous D Ring extends al the
way down to Saturn’ upper atmosphere.
The narrow braid of the F Ring hems the
A Ring’ outer edge, while several minor
rings ~ fragmentary ares’ or clouds of tiny
particles le still further out
‘The laws of physics mean that its
Impossible for rings to be solid bodies
the varying strength of Saturn's gravity
‘would tear them apart. Instead, each
ing and the many distinct ringlets
‘within them ~ is eomposed of countess
icy fragments, each following its own
Individual orbit around the planet. The
orbits are almost perfectly circular and
lie ina single narrow plane less than @
‘lometre (0.62 miles) deep, but the system
is constantly evolving as the gravity of
Saturn's major moons pulls fragments out
ofthis neat arrangement and collisions
with their neighbours jostle them back
ito line. Cassini images have revealed
Increasing levels of detall within the rings,
including dark radial ‘spokes’ rippling
{ mete way across the rings lke a wave and
propeller shaped structures caused by ring
fragments clumping together
‘Within and just beyond the rings, probes
have traced the influence of socalled
‘shepherd moons’ such as Daphnis - small
satelites ranging from a few kilometres to
afew tens of kilometres across that keep
Individual ringlets in line, ereate gaps in
the system and may even contribute fresh
‘material tothe rings. The evolving nature
ofthe system, which grinds down ring
fragments over time and ulkimately loses
material a it spirals down onto Saturn's
equator, means thatthe rings must either
be relatively young ~ one recent analysis
points to formation from the breakup of
‘Tange, ey comet about 100 milion years
ago - or have somehovr been replenished
with new material overtime,
‘The shepherd moons are just the
innermost members ofa vast family
with 82 members a the most recent
count, Saturn has the biggest satellite
system of any ofthe major planets
Beyond the rings orbit eight major moons,
substantial worlds that formed from,
‘material left behind during the birth of
Satur itself The inner five major moons
follow a broad trend of increasing size,
from 400-kilomerre (248:mile) Mimas,
through Enceladus, Tethys and Dione,
to 1,500Xilometre(832-nlle) Rhea; each
consists ofa mix ofiee and rock, and
most show signs of geological activity at
various stages in their past, most likely
low-temperature cryovolcanism creating
eruptions of iy slush. The exception is
the extraordinary Enceladus ~a brilliant
white world 504 kilometres (313 miles)
in diameter whose terrain has not only
been reshaped by very recent resurfacing.
but is also blanketed in fresh snow. Heat
‘generated as Enceladus is distorted by a
‘gravitational tug of war between Saturn
Major missions to Saturn
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War and Peace in Outer Space - Law, Policy, and Ethics - Cassandra Steer (Editor), Matthew Hersch (Editor) - Ethics, National Security, and The Rule - 9780197548684 - 38f80