p. 774 Our Solar System
Exploring
the Planets: Our Solar System
Visit this site by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air
and Space Museum to learn more about the planets of our solar system.
You can find out about each planet or about asteroids and comets by
clicking on the appropriate word. Click on any planet to see what kinds
of information are available at this site. Most of the planet sites
include recent images of the planets.
Welcome
to the Planets
At this National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
site you can view a collection of many of the best images from NASA’s
planetary exploration program. Scroll down to the images of the planets.
For information on a planet, click on its image. You can click on Pluto,
for example, to retrieve its planet profile. What is Pluto’s rotation
period?
An Overview of the Solar System
Go to this site to learn more about the planets of our solar system.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, the planets closest to the Sun, are
also the terrestrial planets. What is another name for these four planets?
The
Nine Planets
Visit this site by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University
of Arizona for a multimedia tour of the solar system. You can learn
about the current scientific knowledge of each planet and its moons
here. Each page has text and images, and some pages have sound and movies.
Click on Venus. Why is Venus sometimes regarded as Earth’s sister planet?
Views
of the Solar System
At this site you can find a multimedia presentation of the Sun,
the planets, moons, comets, and asteroids. The site includes information
on space exploration, rocketry, astronauts, spacecraft, and more. Click
on Mars to see what the newest research reveals about the red planet.
Why do scientists think Mars once had rivers flowing on its surface?
p. 795 More about Our Solar System
Browse
the Solar System
Go to this U.S. Geological Survey site for more information
on the solar system. Scroll down and click on an image in the chart
to learn more about that object. Clicking on an image will bring up
data about that planet, moon, comet, or asteroid. Click on the comet
to see information about the comets that move across our solar system.
How often does Halley’s comet appear in our sky?
Explore
the Solar System
Visit this NASA site to see a graphic of the orbits and locations
of all the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets of the solar system
right now. You can use your mouse to click and drag on the solar system
until you are looking straight down on the planets’ orbits. Then you
can zoom in and out to see how all the orbits look. How does Pluto’s
orbit compare to those of the other planets?
Galileo:
Journey to Jupiter
At this NASA site you can learn all about Jupiter and the Galileo
program. Scroll down and click on discovery summary at the right to
see the highlights discovered by the Galileo probe. Galileo sent back
information on Jupiter and four of its moons. How many moons does Jupiter
have?
p. 800 Recent Extrasolar Planet Discoveries
The Search for Extrasolar Planets
Go to this site by the Department of Astronomy, University of
California, Berkeley for data on extrasolar planets. Go to the menu
at the right of the screen and click on Almanac of Planets to see the
masses and orbital characteristics of extrasolar planets discovered
to date. Return to the home page and click on Planet Research News.
How many new planets did a Swiss team of astronomers recently discover?
Pulsar Planets
Visit this site to learn about the first planets ever found outside
our solar system. The first extrasolar planets were discovered in 1991
in the constellation Virgo. Why does the discovery of these planets
lead scientists to believe that the universe may contain other planets
that, like Earth, sustain life?
Universe
Today – Space News from Around the Internet
Go to this site for a daily update on space news. Click on space
news today in the menu at the left to see what happened in space news
today. You can click on a particular week to find out what happened
in space that week. What happened today in space?
Detecting New Planets
At this site you can learn more about extrasolar planets. Read about the different methods for discovering these planets. How do astronomers know these planets exist?
Hubblesite
This is the official Web site for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
You can see what the Hubble Space Telescope sees and find out what new
discoveries are being made almost daily at this amazing site. Explore
the site by clicking on News to see the latest discovery from Hubble.
Or you can click on gallery to see images of stars, galaxies, or nebulae.
