Here is the conclusion of my diary Photo Tour of The Solar System (Part 1), starting where we left off partways through the Saturn system.
I reiterate that, where possible, the first image of an object will be in true-color, as the naked human eye would see it, and unless stated otherwise, all images can be assumed to either be true-color or monochrome. Most images can be vastly enlarged by clicking on them and selecting a larger size, and even larger sizes than that may be available if the file is downloaded. All images are courtesy of NASA/JPL, or else are noted.
(...continued from Part 1)
We are still in the Saturn system.
- Hyperion
False color:
- Iapetus
Saturnshine - This is from the night side of Iapetus, seen only by the reflected light of Saturn. The streaks in the background are probably dust.
- Phoebe
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IX. Uranus
As there has never been a dedicated spacecraft sent to this planet, we can only rely on images from the Voyager 2 flyby and false-color images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). In fact, there are no officially accepted plans to send spacecraft to either of the furthest outer planets in the foreseeable future. Hopefully that changes.
Some folks sympathize with Pluto, but I feel sympathy for this planet - it gets ignored because of the primary's plainness, and due to the giggle factor of its name. Maybe things would have been different if it had been given the Greek version of its name, "Oranos," rather than the Latinized spelling.
False color (next 3 images), from HST:
- Rings (in monochrome visible light)
In front of Uranus:
- Puck
- Miranda
- Ariel
- Umbriel
- Titania
- Oberon
Size comparison of Uranus, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon:
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X. Neptune
Neptune and Triton:
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XI. Kuiper Belt (pronounced "Kye-per," rhymes with "viper")
Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) are frigid ice worlds intersecting or beyond the orbit of Neptune, and tend to have relatively eccentric orbits. We have no clear images of any of the hundreds of known objects (astronomers expect there to be about 70,000), but there are vague images of the largest and brightest ones.
- 134340 Pluto
This is the best we've got so far, and it is in true color:
We also have false-color images of the Plutonian system, the first showing Pluto and Charon, and the second showing all four objects (as labeled):
There will be much better images of the Plutonian system when the New Horizons probe passes by in 2015.
- Charon
Monochrome:
- 136108 Haumea
With its two satellites, Hi'iaka (top) and Namaka (bottom).
- 50000 Quaoar
- 136472 Makemake
Extended exposure, HST:
- 136199 Eris
Eris is both substantially larger and more massive than Pluto. In this extended exposure, it's seen with its satellite, Dysnomia:
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Thus concludes our photo tour of the solar system. There is also a region of the solar system called the "Oort Cloud" further out from the Kuiper Belt, but we have no worthwhile images of it. For those still curious, I will now present various informational appendices.
A. Additional size comparison images
- Sun, planets, and dwarf planets
- Mercury, Venus (radar map), Earth, Mars
- Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
- Size comparison of planets, Sun, and progressively larger stars up to the largest known
- Jupiter and Galilean moons
- Jupiter and Earth
- Saturn and Moons
- Saturn and Earth
- Uranus and Earth
- Neptune and Earth
- Triton, Luna, and Earth
B. Orbital Charts
- Solar system
Description: This chart helps us appreciate the true scale of the solar system. In the first panel, beginning at upper left, we see the inner solar system, with Jupiter included as a boundary (Jupiter is typically considered part of the outer solar system). Moving clockwise to the upper right panel, we telescope outward and see the original panel shrunk to just a small part of the outer solar system. The Kuiper Belt is shown, as is object 90377 Sedna at perihelion (closest approach to the Sun).
Continuing clockwise to the lower right panel, we once again telescope outward, and now the entire planetary part of the solar system has shrunk to a small set of concentric circles at one of the foci of Sedna's highly elliptical orbit. Then, telescoping outward again into the lower left and final panel, we see Sedna's orbit reduced to a tiny ellipse within the inner extent of the Oort Cloud.
The Oort Cloud - consisting mainly of comets and other small, icy bodies with extraordinarily long-period orbits - has poorly-defined boundaries, and it it considered a possibility that these clouds intersect between stars. Oort Cloud objects may therefore end up transferring from star to star over long time periods, or be thrown into the inner solar system.
- Inner solar system + Jupiter
Description: Here we see a more detailed chart of the inner solar system and Jupiter, showing various asteroidal swarms. The "Greek" and "Trojan" swarms are asteroid groupings at Jupiter's stable solar Lagrange points, although both swarms are often referred to in shorthand as "Trojan asteroids" with the qualifier "leading" or "trailing" to denote which swarm is being referred to.
- Mars system
- Jupiter system
- Galilean moons:
- Outer moons:
- Saturn system
- Inner moons and rings of Uranus
- Full Uranian system
- Inner irregular moons of Neptune
- Two of the reasons Pluto is not a planet
:
It crosses the orbit of Neptune and has a wildly eccentric orbit:
- Kuiper Belt
- Oort Cloud
- Solar system around Milky Way galaxy
- Context of the solar system in the local group of stars, spiral arm, Milky Way, local group of galaxies, and galactic supercluster:
You have to click on the largest size and download to be able to really see it, it's huge:
C. Probe history
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
D. Resources
NASA/JPL
Hubble Site
Wikipedia
Wikimedia Commons
