Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
The first successful flyby of Mars was made by Mariner 4 in 1965. Mariner 10 first passed Mercury in 1974. The first probe to explore the outer planets was Pioneer 10, which flew by Jupiter in 1973. Pioneer 11 was the first to visit Saturn, in 1979.
Saturn is named after the Roman god of wealth and agriculture, who was the father of the god Jupiter.Its astronomical symbol has been traced back to the Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri, where it can be seen to be a Greek kappa-rho ligature with a horizontal stroke, as an abbreviation for Κρονος (), the Greek name for the planet (). [35]
1631 – Pierre Gassendi is the first to observe the transit of Mercury. He was surprised by the small size of the planet compared to the Sun. [86] 1632 – Galileo Galilei is sometimes credited with the discovery of the lunar libration in latitude, [87] although Thomas Harriot or William Gilbert might have done so before. [88]
Pioneer 11 image of Saturn.. Saturn was first visited by Pioneer 11 in September 1979. It flew within 20,000 kilometres (12,000 mi) of the top of the planet's cloud layer. Low-resolution images were acquired of the planet and a few of its moons; the resolution of the images was not good enough to discern surface featu
The new discovery increases the moons orbiting the "jewel of our solar system" to 82, surpassing Jupiter
If observed from the vantage point of space, the rings would still be all accounted for. A view of Saturn's rings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured on June 20, 2019.
Galileo Galilei was among the first to use a telescope to observe the sky, and after constructing a 20x refractor telescope. [83] He discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter in 1610, which are now collectively known as the Galilean moons, in his honor. [84] This discovery was the first known observation of satellites orbiting another planet ...