When it comes to the exploration of the solar system, no planet has spurred the scientific community to greater efforts, whipped up the general public into a greater frenzy of speculation, or resulted in pseudo-experts […]
Since the angular separation of Mercury from the Sun is never more than 28 degrees at maximum elongation, visual observation and study of the planet is fraught with technical difficulty. In fact, the rugged, little […]
Despite being named after a goddess of love and beauty, Venus is a harsh, hellish place that does not inspire warm and fuzzy feelings. Temperatures on its surface are hot enough to melt lead, and […]
Named after the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, but sometimes also known as the Öpik–Oort cloud, this hypothetical cloud of small, icy planetesimals is thought to surround the solar system out to a distance of more […]
Also known as the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt, this structure extends from just beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune to a distance of roughly 50-55 astronomical units from the Sun. Composed primarily of small icy bodies […]
Halley’s Comet, also designated 1P/Halley as it was the first comet to be recognized as periodic, is the only comet that is known to be visible without optical aid during each apparition, which occurs once […]
With a circumference of 4,956 km (271,104 miles), Titania is the biggest moon of the planet Uranus, and the 8th biggest solar system moon overall. Titania was discovered by William Herschel on January 11, 1787, […]
Neptune’s biggest moon, Triton, has a diameter of 2,700 km, making it the 7th biggest moon in the solar system, as well as its 16th biggest object overall. Triton also contains more than 99.5% of […]
Titan is Saturn’s biggest moon and a fully 50% bigger and 80% more massive than our own Moon, making it the second-biggest natural satellite in the entire solar system after Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter. […]
Of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, Io is the closest to the planet at an average distance of 422,000 km (262,219 miles), and is the moon with the highest density. It is also the solar system object […]
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