Distant Worlds: Milestones in Planetary Exploration
CHAPTER 1: DISCOVERING DISTANT WORLDS 3 CHAPTER 2: MERCURY: THE IRON PLANET 21 CHAPTER 3: VENUS: THE RUNAWAY GREENHOUSE 45 CHAPTER 4: THE MOON: QUEEN OF THE NIGHT 69 5: MARS: THE RED PLANET CHAPTER 101 CHAPTER 6: ASTEROIDS: VERMIN OF THE SKIES 129 CHAPTER 7: JUPITER: KING OF THE PLANETS 147 CHAPTER 8: SATURN: LIGHTWEIGHT LORD OF THE RINGS 185 CHAPTER 9: URANUS: THE TOPPLED GIANT 217 CHAPTER 10: NEPTUNE: THE LAST GIANT 237 CHAPTER 11: PLUTO: KING OF THE KUIPER BELT 257 CHAPTER 12: COMETS: COSMIC ICEBERGS 269 APPENDICES 1: Lunar and Planetary Missions 285 2: Planetary Data 298 3: Satellite Data 299 4: Planetary Rings 305 5: The Largest Known Kuiper Belt Objects 307 6: Lunar and Planetary Firsts 308 7: Selected Reading List 310 8: Selected Websites 314 INDEX 317 VII Until about 500 years ago, the Earth was believed to lie at Pluto and its recently discovered, larger cousin in the far the center of the Universe, with the Sun and five planets reaches of the Sun's realm. For the first time, human eyes revolving around it. The planets themselves were merely have been able to see towering cliffs, dust devils, erupting points of light that drifted across the stellar constellations.
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Contents
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MERCURY THE IRON PLANET
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21 |
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VENUS THE RUNAWAY GREENHOUSE
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45 |
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THE MOON QUEEN OF THE NIGHT
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69 |
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MARS THE RED PLANET
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101 |
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ASTEROIDS VERMIN OF THE SKIES
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129 |
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JUPITER KING OF THE PLANETS
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147 |
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SATURN LIGHTWEIGHT LORD OF THE RINGS
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185 |
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Common terms and phrases
Apollo Apollo 11 Arrived asteroid asteroid belt astronomers atmosphere basin bright Callisto camera Cassini Charon closest approach cloud tops comet comet Halley dark density detected diameter discovered discovery distance dust Earth orbit epsilon ring equator exploration flyby Galileo giant gravity ground-based hemisphere Hubble Space Telescope huge Huygens hydrogen images taken impact craters infrared instruments Jupiter Jupiter's Kuiper Belt lander landing largest launch lava layer Luna lunar magnetic field main belt Mariner Mars Martian measured Mercury Mercury's methane million km mission Moon Moon's NASA NASA-JPL NASA's Neptune nucleus object observations Observatory outer particles Pioneer planet planetary Pluto polar pole probe radar radio region revealed ring rock rotation sample return satellite Saturn scientists side Solar System solar wind Soviet spacecraft Spot star storm suggested surface temperature Titan Uranus USSR Venera Venus visible volcanic Voyager water ice