The Outer Solar System
The Asteroid Belt
Three Asteroids
Ida And Its Moon
Double Asteroids
Eros
Asteroid Itokawa
Spacecraft Shadow
Jupiter
The Largest Planet
Jupiter, Io, and Europa
The Great Red Spot
Jupiter is Hot Inside
Jupiter Has A Ring
Callisto
Valhalla Basin, Callisto
Ganymede
Ganymede
Close-up of Ganymede
Europa
Europa’s Icy Crust
Io
Io Has Active Volcanoes
Lava Flows on Io
Eruption on Io
Amalthea
Comet Schumacher-Levy 9
Impact of Comet Schumacher-Levy 9, 1993
Impact of Comet Schumacher-Levy 9, 1993
Saturn from Voyager
Not as Exciting as Jupiter
Dark Side of the Rings
Rings and Shadow
Looking Back At Saturn
Crescent Saturn
Behind Saturn
Behind Saturn You Are Here
Ripply Rings
Making Waves
Saturn and its Satellites
Mimas
Enceladus
Tethys
Titan
Phoebe
Iapetus By Saturn-Shine
Iapetus Ridge
Titan’s Haze
Surface of Titan
Aerial View of Titan
Aerial View of Titan
Surface of Titan
Uranus from Voyager
The Rings of Uranus
The Moons of Uranus
Miranda
Rift on Miranda
Neptune from Voyager
Neptune’s Rings
Triton
Pluto and Charon
Halley’s Comet
Nucleus of Comet Borrelly
Comet Tempel
Deep Impact
A Comet Hits The Sun
Protoplanetary Disks in Orion
Other Solar Systems Methods About 200 extrasolar planets known Gravitational Wobble Doppler Effect Transits Microlensing About 200 extrasolar planets known Can’t detect small or distant planets A real zoo Is our solar system unusual?
Studying Other Solar Systems Detecting Imaging the System Selected wavelengths Masking (Coronagraph) Interferometry Imaging Planets Spectroscopy Close Study Flyby Orbiter Sample Return Human Missions Exploration Colonization
Limits of Current Detection Methods Can’t Detect Small Planets Can’t Detect Distant Planets Can’t Detect Face-On Systems
Benefits of Imaging Other Solar Systems More complete census of objects Can get information about sizes and makeup Better chance of finding systems like our own
How To Image Other Solar Systems Use Infrared Difference in brightness is thousands, not millions Masking (Coronagraph) Impossible to eliminate all stray light Interferometry Combine light from two telescopes to cancel out starlight
Visiting Other Star Systems Time problem @ 10%c, 43 years to Alpha Centauri @ 90%c, 4.8 years to Alpha Centauri Missions need to be ultra reliable Missions need to be totally autonomous Energy problem @ 10%c, a 10-ton probe needs 1000 Mt @ 90%c, a 10-ton probe needs 250,000 Mt
How Do We Get There? Problem with rockets is just moving all that fuel Solar Sail Very low acceleration using sunlight Speed up using laser or microwave beams Orion Design “How I learned to stop worrying and love The Bomb” Used in movie Deep Impact Only known technology capable of accelerating large masses to high speeds