Most exciting year for solar system exploration? |
Most exciting year for solar system exploration? |
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![]() Junior Member ![]() ![]() Group: Members Posts: 48 Joined: 10-September 06 Member No.: 1129 ![]() |
In light of the coming rendezvous with Ceres and the Pluto-Charon system, I thought I'd start a conversation about what everyone considers to be the most exciting years in solar system exploration. I think 1969 is obviously the most exciting year for manned exploration, so for this topic I'd like to focus more on the robotic missions.
Here are the ones I consider the top 3 contenders: 1965 - Mariner 4 sends back the first pictures of another world's surface other than Earth & Luna, revealing Mars to be utterly different than many had imagined. 1979 - Voyager 1 & 2 are the first to image the surfaces of the 4 Galilean Moons, revealing their surprising natures on a global scale. 2015 - If all goes as planned, Dawn and New Horizons will image the surfaces of 3 never-explored worlds (Ceres, Pluto, and Charon) in high resolution. Some other notable years... 1972 - Mariner 9 is the first craft to orbit another planet, and dramatically expands the scope of Mars imagery. 1974 - Mariner 10 images Venus and Mercury for the first time. 1975 - Venera 9 is the first probe to take photos from the surface of another planet. 1980 - Voyager 1 explores Saturn and several of its moons. 1986 - Voyager 2 explores the Uranus system. 1989 - Voyager 2 explores Neptune and Triton, discovering a world with nitrogen geysers. 2005 - Huygens lands on Titan, and Cassini reveals the dark side of Iapetus and the plumes of Enceladus. 2014 - Rosetta is the first craft to image a comet in high resolution and the first to land a probe on a comet. All just my opinion. What say you? |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 17th June 2024 - 12:52 PM |
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