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Galileo [9] [10] discovered the Galilean moons. These satellites were the first celestial objects that were confirmed to orbit an object other than the Sun or Earth. Galileo saw Io and Europa as a single point of light on 7 January 1610; they were seen as separate bodies the following night. [11] Callisto: Jupiter IV o: 8 January 1610 p: 13 ...
Quaoar's diameter is roughly half that of Pluto and is slightly smaller than Pluto's moon Charon. [29] At the time of its discovery in 2002, Quaoar was the largest object found in the Solar System since the discovery of Pluto. [29] Quaoar was also the first trans-Neptunian object to be measured directly from Hubble Space Telescope images. [19]
The dates listed are launch dates, but the achievements noted may have occurred some time later—in some cases, a considerable time later (for example, Voyager 2, launched 20 August 1977, did not reach Neptune until 1989).
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Mayan astronomers discover an 18.7-year cycle in the rising and setting of the Moon. From this they created the first almanacs – tables of the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets for the use in astrology. In 6th century BCE Greece, this was also discovered and was used to predict eclipses.
Eventually, new moons were discovered also around Uranus starting in 1787 by Herschel, [23] around Neptune starting in 1846 by William Lassell [24] and around Mars in 1877 by Asaph Hall. [25] Further apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the outer planets led Percival Lowell to conclude that yet another planet, "Planet X", must lie beyond ...
The times of the eclipses of the moons could be precisely calculated in advance and compared with local observations on land or on ship to determine the local time and hence longitude. Galileo applied in 1616 for the Spanish prize of 6,000 gold ducats with a lifetime pension of 2,000 a year, and almost two decades later for the Dutch prize, but ...
There are 293 confirmed moons in our cosmic neighborhood. By studying these worlds, astronomers hope to learn about ancient asteroid collisions, space volcanoes, and the origins of life itself.