Destinations

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No matter how hard we try, and despite the many other online sections and resources here, there will always be more information available in the world than can be contained on one server.

Here are our favorites for this chapter. Go ahead and check them out, but be sure to return back to do more exploring when you're done!

For a good selection of general sites of broad interest and utility that are related to many chapters of the book, see our collection of General Web Destinations For All Chapters.

The Thousand-Yard Model -OR- The Earth as a Peppercorn: This is a classic exercise for visualizing just how BIG our Solar System really is. Both the relative size and spacing of the planets are demonstrated in this outdoor exercise, using a peppercorn to represent the size of the Earth. Great student activity for individual study use at the college level, or to demonstrate Solar System dimensions to large groups of younger students.
NASA's Solar System Exploration Home Page: NASA has created a central site to provide information and educational material about the exploration of our solar system. This site has information on solar system exploration missions past, present, and future. There are pages with information on all of the planets, and asteroids that make up our solar system. Downloadable mini-posters, images, and animations make this website a must-see for all future explorers.
Solar System Live: An interactive on-line orrery on the Web, this site allows you to view the layout and locations of entire Solar System, or alternatively just the inner planets through the orbit of Mars. Controls allow you to set time and date, viewpoint, observing location, orbital elements to track an asteroid or comet, and a variety of other parameters.
Tutorial on the Solar System: An overview of the contents of the Solar System in text form, from the Royal Greenwich Observatory. See also their related discussions of the Surface Temperatures of the Planets and the furthest object in the Solar System from the Sun and the objects that have come closest to the Earth without hitting it (as far as we know).
Solar System Family Portrait: After Voyager 2 had its encounter with Neptune, the Voyager project turned the cameras of Voyager 1 (whose camera had been dormant since Saturn) back on where the two spacecraft had come from and took the images on this Web page. Includes a diagram of how the frames for the Solar System Family Portrait were taken, all of the individual frames from the family portrait, captions, and the overall "Solar System Portrait" itself.
Planetary Magnetospheres: All planets and comets explored to date have magnetospheres. The existence of these magnetospheres is independent of whether the planet has an internally generated or intrinsic magnetic field, but the nature of these magnetospheres is quite dependent on this fact. For the planets that have no internal magnetic dynamo the solar wind induces a magnetosphere through its interaction with the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Learn more, and compare the magnetospheric properties of the different planets in the solar system, at this site.
Why We Study Planets: This link takes you to the online version of a well-written overview of planetary science written by the National Academy of Sciences that explains the basic science of comparative planetology and sets out some of the main questions to be addressed by research over the coming years.
Asteroids: Deadly Impact: Anxious to try out the fancy features in that modern HTML-3.2-or-better, Java-equipped, Shockwave-enabled browser you downloaded? Want to explore the effect of asteroid impacts in a graphics-rich setting so well done that it is worthy of comparison with some CD-ROM programs? Do you also have a good network connection and some curiosity, or at least enough patience to follow a puzzle and explore some clues? Join National Geographic's hypothetical Department of Extraterrestrial Phenomena to help match some culprits, private-eye style, to the results of impacts at various places around the globe. Warning, don't try this with a text-only browser!
Discovering Impact Craters: The solar system has many bodies (planets, moons, asteroids) that show evidence of extensive cratering. The Earth's Moon is a familiar and nearby example. Images of the other planets and their satellites reveal that some are cratered and others are not. This page provides links to help you take an inventory of the cratering record of objects in our solar system.
What Is a Meteorite?: When a small piece of solid matter called a meteoroid collides with the Earth's atmosphere, friction created by its passage through the air causes its surface to heat up. During the resulting brilliant flash of light, it is called a meteor. Should the object survive this plunge through the atmosphere and hit the ground, it then becomes a meteorite. Learn more on the origin and classification of meteorites from this page.
Meteorites - Messengers From The Past: Meteorites are pieces of ancient material that survive their fall to Earth from space. Most were formed at the birth of the solar system, about 4,560 million years ago. We have no material from Earth as old as this, so by studying meteorites we can gain insight about the processes that shaped our solar system and our planet. This site from the Natural History Museum, London will tell you more. If you have an advanced browser suitable for viewing animated inline GIF images, and a fast modem or good Web connection, plus the curiosity to investigate an unusual micrometeorite, then try your hand at solving The Mystery of the Cosmic Football online!
Asteroid Fact Sheet: Fact sheeet on asteroids from the National Space Science Data Center. Includes a table of information and comments on selected asteroids, and values for mass, diameter, orbital period, rotation period, and spectral class for the largest asteroids, as well as some further informative hyperlinks.
Comet Fact Sheet: Gives the basic information on orbits, perihelion dates, and brightness of several famous comets and some upcoming ones for which this information is known. See also the list of other destinations given in their extensive page on Asteroids and Comets.
Comets and Meteor Showers: A good starting point to learn the basic elements of meteor shower visual observation. Includes news, predictions of upcoming shower activity, and related useful links. Be sure to check out the North American Meteor Network Observing Guide.
The International Meteor Organization: The International Meteor Organization, founded in 1988, is dedicated to collection of meteor observations from around the world, to the study of meteor showers, and to investigation of their relation to other space debris such as comets and interplanetary dust. Includes pages on video, telescopic, radio, and visual observation and on fireball reporting, as well as a calendar of predicted meteor activity.
Comets Currently Visible: This page provides a quick summary of comets that can be observed visually. Positions for the comets discussed are given on the ephemerides page. Some current information and observations of these comets are also summarized. Images for some comets can be found on the images page, but be warned, this is sometimes a VERY popular (and hence hard to reach) site!
The International Comet Quarterly: The International Comet Quarterly is a non-profit scientific journal published by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory that is devoted to the observation of, study of, and news about comets. It serves as a link between amateur and professional astronomers in the exchange of observations following a standardized format. It also disseminates news regarding all comets, and issues press releases suitable for reading by members of the general public when major or significant comets are observed.
The Kuiper Belt Home Page: Starting in 1992, astronomers have become aware of a vast population of small bodies orbiting the sun beyond Neptune in a broad ring generally referred to as the Kuiper Belt. The study of the trans-Neptunians is a rapidly evolving field, with major observational and theoretical advances in the last few years. A partial list of relevant papers is included on this Web page. You can also find a table of the known trans-Neptunian objects, the discovery images for one of them, and a blink sequence that shows how these objects are identified.
The Submillimeter Comet Home Page: This page gives information -- some of it quite technical -- about how submillimeter spectroscopy can be used to explore the chemical content, orbital speeds, outgassing rates, and other material features of comets from our location here on Earth. A really remarkable amount of information can be gathered, even from a distance. This link is definitely recommended for those who enjoy sorting through such clues.
Build Your Own Comet: A dramatic and effective way to begin a unit on comets is to make your own comet right in front of the class. The ingredients for a comet are not difficult to find, and watching a comet being "constructed" is something the students will remember for a long time. (Be careful that they don't end up thinking that real comets contain syrup, however -- this is only used for convenience!)
The Comet's Tale: This framed, image-intensive, media-rich set of educational pages provides an elementary (but interesting) introduction to the origin, characteristics, history, composition and observation of comets, along with links to other related sites. What more could you want? Just be certain you have a good browser and a fast network link in place before you begin exploring these pages!
How Planetary Systems and Life Originate: Describes is the state of present understanding regarding the conditions in which our solar system and many other planetary systems were formed, the unique role played by the most primitive bodies in the solar system (comets and asteroids) in allowing us to interpret the record of events in the early solar system, and the many complex processes that subsequently shaped the planets. The discussion proceeds to the possibilities for life elsewhere.
The Discovery of a Planetary Orbit Around the Nearby Star 51Pegasi: Planetary motions around their host stars, in principle, cause small variations in the radial velocity of the star as viewed from the Earth. The amplitude of these variations depends upon the gravitational influence of the planetary system about the host star. This in turn depends upon the mass and distance from the star of the individual planets. Get the scoop on how the detection of these variations was used to discover the first confirmed planet found (by us, i.e., humans!) orbiting a different star than our own Sun.
Planetary Searches: Home page for the planetary search program at San Francisco State University. See also our Chapter 4 Image Archive for more information.
Detecting Extrasolar Planets With Millimeter-Wave Observatories: Detecting planets circling other stars is a particularly difficult task, and only a few such planets have been discovered so far. In order to answer fundamental questions about planetary systems and their origin, scientists need to find and study many more extrasolar planets. According to this press release put together by National Radio Astronomy Observatory scientists, millimeter-wavelength observatories could provide valuable information about extrasolar planetary systems at all stages of their development.
Circumstellar Disks and Possible Planetary Systems: What is the nature of the particle disks that were discovered around Beta Pictoris? Mapping the disks might reveal gaps caused by the presence of planets. At wavelengths of 10 microns and beyond, it will be possible for new ground-based telescopes to achieve a resolution as good as 0.3 arcsec, which corresponds to 1-2 AU (1 AU = mean Earth-Sun distance), comparable to the scale of the Earth's orbit, for the nearest candidate systems. This site explains the program of the new 8-meter Gemini telescopes, one of which is based at Mauna Kea in Hawaii and the other at Cerro Pachon, Chile.