It’s easy to see why not much attention is paid to Callisto. For four hundred years,
Callisto appeared only as the fourth dot away when gazing at Jupiter through a telescope. It also
didn’t help Callisto gain attention by orbiting Jupiter. Jupiter may be one of the most intriguing
objects that astronomers have yet to study. Jupiter is the king of the planets. With its complex
bands and zones, Great Red Spot, and sheer size, Jupiter has captured our imaginations and has
pushed us to learn and explore all we can about it. Now, with our Pioneer, Voyager, and
especially Galileo spacecrafts, we have uncovered mysteries of Callisto that give our minds and
imaginations quite a workout.
John D. Anderson used Radio Doppler data collected by the Deep Space Network from
five encounters of the Galileo spacecraft with Callisto. From this data him and his team found
that Callisto has a mean radius of 2410.3 km, with no detectable deviation from sphericity. They
assembled this data measuring three principle axes, and all three axes were equal to the mean
radius with a realistic error of 1.5 km (Anderson et al., 2001). This places Callisto as the third
largest satellite in the Solar System, slightly smaller than Mercury, but 1330 km in radius larger
than Pluto.
Callisto does have an atmosphere. This is not comparable to the atmosphere of Titan or
any other planet with a significant atmosphere. Nonetheless, an off-limb scan of Callisto was
conducted by the Galileo near-infrared mapping spectrometer in hopes to detect a carbon dioxide
atmosphere. Airglow in the 4.26 μm carbon dioxide band was indeed observed up to 100 km
above the surface. This indicates the presence of a tenuous carbon dioxide atmosphere with
surface pressure o...
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JUNO is a NASA mission to the planet Jupiter. The Juno spacecraft is scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas V-551 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in Aug. 2011. (www.nasa.gov). It will take 5 years to reach Jupiter, arriving in July 2016. It will orbit Jupiter 33 times. The purpose of the mission is to explore Jupiter’s structure and atmosphere. The main aim of this mission is to understand how the planet Jupiter originated and thus help us understand the evolution of the gas giants. This knowledge will also reflect upon our understanding of the origins of the Universe. The spacecraft will be placed in a polar orbit to study the planet's composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere. Juno will also search to see whether the planet has a rocky core and investigate the amount of water present within the planet’s atmosphere. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA is managing the Juno mission for Dr. Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. The spacecraft is being built by Lockheed Martin of Denver. Scientists from 5 countries ha...
... a bear to protect her from his wife Hera's jealousy. Later, Zeus placed Callisto and their son in the sky, and mother and son became Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Callisto is the third largest moon in the solar system and is almost the size of Mercury. Its interior is similar to Ganymede except the inner rocky core is smaller, and this core is surrounded by a large icy mantle. Callisto's surface is the darkest of the four major moons, but it is twice as bright as our own Moon. It is thought to be a long dead world. Callisto is about 4 billion years old and has the oldest landscape in the solar system. Although Jupiter is not the best place to land or live it does hold a moon that could be habitual. Europa and Ganymede are two of the best places to try to colonize although we could harm the organisms there if there are any. Either way Jupiter is not a planet to live in.
Neptune was discovered through a discrepancy in Uranus’s orbit. Uranus’s orbit was not moving how astronomers predicted it would. They could not find an elliptical orbit that fit Uranus’s trajectory. They therefore assumed that there had to be another planet that’s gravitational pull was effecting Uranus. Johann Galle was the first to find Neptune in 1846, even though many before him had mathematically predicted where this new planet would be. The planet was named Neptune and two astronomers who had predicted mathematically where it would be are credited with finding it not Galle.
Although Pluto was discovered in 1930, limited information on the distant planet delayed a realistic understanding of its characteristics. Today Pluto remains the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft, yet an increasing amount of information is unfolding about this peculiar planet. The uniqueness of Pluto's orbit, rotational relationship with its satellite, spin axis, and light variations all give the planet a certain appeal.
"Our Solar System: Galileo's Observations of the Moon, Jupiter, Venus and the Sun." Solar System Exploration: Science & Technology: Science Features: Our Solar System: Galileo's Observations of the Moon, Jupiter, Venus and the Sun. NASA, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has yet to be discovered as in depth as Juno will. NASA New Frontiers recently established the Juno Mission to observe Jupiter (Ionescu 1). The spacecraft is currently on route to Jupiter and it is set to arrive in 2016. Juno will orbit Jupiter thirty-three times total before shutting down (Ionescu 1). Juno will observe Jupiter with deeper observation than can be seen by a telescope. The Juno Spacecraft is a project made to discover Jupiter’s high winds, a possible water source, and the planetary structure.
Redd, Nola T. "Space and NASA News – Universe and Deep Space Information | Space.com." Space.com. Space.com, 08 Mar. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
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Perhaps one of the most interesting features of our fathomless universe are the planets that are classified as gas giants. Huge, turbulent, and distant, the gas giants are some of the most enigmatic features in our Solar System. I have a personal interest to the gas giants and celestial bodies in general. When I was a child, I was fascinated by our Solar System. I read innumerable books about space, and my interests of outer space had been piqued further by other forms of media. Although I held this interest of space, growing up left me with little time to learn about space, and I lost interest for a while. Taking Earth Science in Milpitas High re-invigorated my interests in the celestial bodies. Using this class, I’m now able to focus on learning more about our colossal universe, in particular, the outer planets.
Uranus is so far away that scientists knew comparatively little about it before NASA's Voyager 2 undertook its historic first encounter with the planet. The spacecraft flew closely past distant Uranus, and came within 81,500 kilometers (50,600 miles) of Uranus's cloudtops on Jan. 24, 1986. Voyager 2 radioed thousands of images and mass amounts of other scientific data about Uranus, its moons, rings, atmosphere, interior and magnetic environment. However, while Voyager has revealed much about the gas giant, many questions remain to be answered.
McDaid, Liam . "44 Common Misconceptions About Astronomy." Sacramento City College. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. .
Galileo is one of the greatest scientists in the world, especially at that moment. At that
Venus, the second planet closest to the Sun and Earth’s closest neighbor, is known for its many wonders and harsh conditions. Venus is possibly the first planet discovered by humans and is said to have been first discovered in 17 B.C. by Babylonian astronomers. Venus is the first planet to be explored by spacecraft although many of these attempts have proven unsuccessful. Fortunately, more than twenty of the spacecraft explorations been proven successful, and through those we have gained knowledge about this wonder of the night sky.
... Titan, researchers have already detected an active organic chemistry in the gas phase with a large amount of organic compounds in the high stratosphere; while the chemistry in the high stratosphere is in the gas phase, chemistry in the lower atmosphere are mainly in the condensed phase.