Tag Archives: probe

A History of Observing the Sun

Posted on March 22, 2021 by mwdobson3

Kevin Durant, a two-time NBA champion, once tweeted: “I’m wondering how do these people kno what’s goin on on the the sun.. ain’t nobody ever been.” Like his tweet from 2010, I too wondered how humans have been able to study the Sun’s surface and what discoveries have been made to determine the surface’s characteristics.Continue reading “A History of Observing the Sun” Continue reading →

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Juno, the Probe to Jupiter

Posted on March 15, 2016 by imanig625

The Juno spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter, getting closer and closer as the years go by. Having left in August of 2011, five years later, Juno is due to arrive in July of this year. It is going to be the first solar-powered spacecraft to reach as far as Jupiter. Its mission is to study the… Continue reading →

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NASA’s Solar Probe Plus

Posted on March 15, 2016 by solarsystemjoe

By 2018, NASA will launch the Solar Probe Plus.  This probe will get within 9 solar radii of the surface of the Sun.  That distance is 7 times closer than any probe has ever been.  A portion of the probe will have to remain cool and the rest of it will have to be as […] Continue reading →

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Messenger’s Last Legs

Posted on April 5, 2015 by dillonkoval

The MESSENGER mission, short for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging sent up the probe in August 2004. In March 2011 it became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. The probe has done a lot in its years around the Solar System’s first planet including: constructing the best-ever maps of Mercury and discovering carbon-containing […] Continue reading →

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Now You See Me

Posted on March 17, 2014 by reidrcreviston

The sun is what gives us life, sustains humanity, and provides our planet with everything it needs to survive day to day.  Without Such an important star we would cease to exist.  Although the sun is the most important thing to our survival we don’t know a whole lot about it.  We know some details […] Continue reading →

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Gravitational Slingshots

Posted on April 10, 2013 by ibrahim2016

I always wondered why doesn’t the sun slow space probes down when they are leaving the Earth for outer planets. Isn’t there a risk that the probe might change its trajectory and fall into the sun? There is. You see, the more distant the space probe gets from the Sun, the more potential energy it […] Continue reading →

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