Scientists Take The Closest Images Of Solar System

 

In the past, our ancestors could only dream about seeing the planets of the solar system up close. However, with the advent of telescopes, we gained a slightly closer view from Earth. But with advancing technology, we’ve been able to launch probes to explore the gas giants, rocky worlds, and even approach the Sun without being consumed by its heat. Now, for the first time in history, we can observe detailed images of celestial bodies in our solar system, a level of clarity once reserved for science fiction films. Prepare to witness sunlight sparkling on the lakes of moons, unparalleled views of Jupiter unraveling its mysteries, and microscopic details of the Sun’s structure as we venture closer than ever before to these incredible wonders.

and mysterious worlds, and see them like you’ve never seen them before. In 1979, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes both made close flybys of Jupiter. Together, the probes grabbed over 33,000 breathtaking images of the celestial giant and its moons. When Voyager 1 got close to the gas giant, it gave us a much better image of the Great Red Spot. This once mysterious and distant storm about the size of planet Earth was finally revealed in such high detail that it stunned astronomers. And then, in 2016, the Juno spacecraft entered the gas giant’s orbit, and became the very first probe that was able to peek below the planet’s dense clouds. The quality of the images the spacecraft sent back dwarfed all prev ious observations. Jupiter’s clouds are extremely thick, but Juno’s microwave frequencies allowed the spacecraft’s instruments to measure water deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere. In this image, on the left, the gas giant’s clouds appear somewhat like the human eye would see them, and on the right, the colors and contrast have been increased to reveal small-scale features. Just imagine someday being able to see it with your own eyes, and not in a snapshot. In 2017, Juno cruised just about 8000 miles above Jupiter’s south tropical zone. Although the bright clouds in this image might seem small, but they are actually 30 miles wide [50 km] and 30 miles high [50 km]. They’re so large that they cast shadows on the clouds below. Scientists think these clouds contain water and ammonia ice, and can cause lightning on the gas giant, like this lightning bolt visible in another Juno snapshot. Gas giants’ atmospheres are complex, and one distinct feature that Jupiter and Saturn share is jet streams wh ich are super-fast winds that race along the planet’s atmosphere reaching hundreds of miles per hour or more. This is Jet N3 on Jupiter captured by Juno during one of its closest approaches. The image is so sharp, it shows features as small as 1.6 miles [2. 6 km] across! On Earth, lighting is a game-changer in photography, and it also changes the way things look in space. Just like this sunlit side of Jupiter and its swirling atmosphere. And when scientists tinker with the camera’s settings, unl eashing the power of infrared imaging, they can unveil previously unseen features on the planet. Throw in some color-enhancement tweaks, and suddenly the pictures look way more amazing. The closer Juno orbited Jupiter, the better shots it took, like these images of the planet’s gigantic storm. Every five weeks, it swings by the polar regions, shooting signals back to Earth. On its 46th go-around, Juno’s camera took a magnificent picture of Jupiter’s northern cyclones – massive storms that have b een swirling around for more than five years! And by the way, the spacecraft is still orbiting Jupiter, and will continue to do so till 2025. Meanwhile, the James Webb Space telescope saw the gas giant in a completely new light, providing us with the latest images of Jupiter up to date. Jupiter’s moons have had their close-up moments too. And although they haven’t grabbed the spotlight as much, some of the images we’ve got are right up there with the best shots of the Earth’s Moon. This is the s urface of the largest of Jupiter’s moons ‘Ganymede’ as it was seen by Voyager 1. Ganymede is the biggest moon in the solar system, even larger than the planet Mercury, and has two types of terrain. The dark stuff is ancient, while the lighter bands are much younger. But even that isn’t the most detailed image of the moon’s terrain. Here, what looks like a piece of metal under a microscope, is actually a close-up shot of grooves and ridges on Ganymede’s icy crust. And this is another of the gas g iant’s many moons Callisto with an intricate circular structure that astronomers think is the sign of the satellite’s low density.

On the surface, it looks similar to the Earth’s moon, all rugged and scattered with small impact craters. This tiny sphere of rock with the mighty Jupiter in the background is Io, captured in 2001 by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. And although the two celestial bodies appear to be close to each other, there’s two and a half Jupiters worth of distance separating them. And that’s how the moon looks up close. Scientists believe it has 400 active volcanoes. One of them is named Ra Patera, which is currently spewing rivers of lava that flow down its flanks. The moon also has towering mountains, higher than those we have on our planet. Probably the most famous of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, was orbited by Juno within just 220 miles [350 km]. Europa has a fractured surface, with small rounded domes, bands, and ridges. But it’s also covered with broken ice, which scientis ts think hints at the existence of a liquid water ocean underneath the moon’s surface. Perhaps one day in the future, we will have technology so advanced it will allow us to detect the presence of subsurface oceans on extraterrestrial celestial bodies with a 100% certainty. But meanwhile, let’s continue our cosmic voyage, and take a close look at another impressive gas giant that is a big favorite of stargazers and astronomers alike. 400 million miles [645 million km] away from Jupiter sits a me smerizing rocky world surrounded by iconic rings of dust and debris. And if you think you’ve seen incredible images of Saturn, then get ready to take a look at the latest images. But first, a little from the beginning of this planet’s exploration

However, the early astronomer had no idea he was looking at rings. He instead thought there were two moons in tight orbit, making it look like Saturn had handles on each side. Astronomers of the past were onto something and weren’t completely wrong. A new study based on 200 computer simulations suggests a relatively recent collision between two icy moons close to Saturn. Back in the early 1980s, the Voyager spacecraft made its historic encounter with Saturn, and gave us a chance to observe its rings from a distance never before achieved. Today, we know that the majestic ring system is not only a razor-thin structure mostly composed of ice particles, but also pieces o f comets and asteroids. The material is pristine, and it’s only a few million years old, which means that the debris from the collision is still orbiting the planet. In these images made by the twin probes, you can see bits of the icy shattered moons in a celestial dance around Saturn. But then came Cassini, which offered us even better visuals of the planet, its rings, and showed a whole new group of moons. and a whole new group of previously undiscovered moons. In this shot, the probe captured an enormous-sized storm raging in the planet’s northern hemisphere. A little higher, over Saturn’s north pole, Cassini snapped something even more spectacular – a spinning vortex with an eye that’s 1,250 miles [2,000 km] across. The colors in this image aren’t real, but they are like that for a reason, they represent a distinct wavelength of near-infrared light. In a way, a color code is a type of a cosmic language, and in this case, red shows low-lying clouds and green depicts the ones that fl oat higher in the atmosphere. Although the image was captured at about Earth to Moon distance, it has a scale of just 1 mile [2 km] per pixel. Probably the best picture of Saturn up to this date is this stunning panorama that consists of 165 separate images. The planet’s atmosphere has also been closely observed by Cassini. What looks like a watercolor painting here is the view of Saturn’s clouds where sunlight is absorbed and scattered by the planet’s methane-rich atmosphere. Auroras also bring color to this distant world, but unlike northern lights on Earth, they’re invisible on Saturn unless you use a specific camera. Both on Earth and Saturn, auroras happen when charged particles from the Sun hit the planet’s atmosphere. On Earth, we see them as colorful bands in the sky, but on the ringed planet, something different happens. The way Saturn’s atmosphere interacts with the solar wind makes these lights show up only in the ultraviolet spectrum – the type of light the human eye cannot see. And this angle shows just how thin Saturn’s rings actually are. A tiny bright spot on the left is one of the planet’s 146 moons – Dione, which isn’t as small as it may seem. By comparison, the Earth’s Moon is just 3 times larger. Saturn’s natural satellites are just as majestic. Scientists believe some of them might hide a subsurface ocean and, potentially, alien forms of microbial life. One of these moons is Enceladus as seen by the Cassini spacecraft. Enceladus is a unique moon, teeming ological activities for a very long time. In this detailed image, you can see how the newly formed terrain, on the right, looks compared to an older cratered area. But the south pole of the satellite is a completely different story, it experiences bursts of ice and vapor that scientists think come from an ocean under the icy surface. There, at the bottom of the ocean could be hydrothermal vents generating heat and powering crucial chemical reactions, which can theoretically create a habitable en nd here’s an artist’s concept of how they might look on the surface of the satellite.

Although the processes behind the formation of lake basins on Titan would be different. Here on our planet, they typically result from glacial, tectonic, or volcanic activities. But on Titan, they emerge from outgassing. During warming events, liquid nitrogen deposits in its crust heat up, transforming into vapors, and creating openings or holes in the moon’s surface. When flying during daytime here on Earth, w effect resulting from a high concentration of methane in its atmosphere. Some scientists believe that a hypothetical non-water-based life, with molecules that consist of hydrocarbons, can exist and thrive in Titan’s liquid methane lakes. While Saturn and its moons have been extensively studied, there are celestial bodies in our solar system that remain shrouded in mystery, ready for surprises to be unveiled that could astonish the scientific community. But Saturn is not the only iconic planet in e telescope and other spacecraft alike will soon change that. The JWST has already started exploring this distant world, giving us a chance to see it as it has never been seen before. In this wide view image, the telescope’s camera shows Uranus and 6 of its 27 moons. Zoom in, and the planet reveals its radiant rings, glowing clouds, and a polar cap. As we venture deeper into the cosmos, we stumble across yet another captivating world. We know Earth as the blue planet, but the bluest of them all ion. If that sounds chaotic, it is. Neptune’s weather is probably the most violent in the entire solar system. It has incredibly strong winds of frozen methane blowing at astonishing speeds of over 1,200 miles per hour [1,900 kmh]. That’s one and a half times faster than the speed of sound, and about 9 times faster than the strongest winds on Earth. And then, there’s Neptune’s largest moon – Triton, subtly present in the cosmic darkness accompanied by its planet. All the other moons in the syste sibly, have a liquid water ocean. If that turns out to be true, this would be the most distant celestial body in the solar system that managed to retain water in its liquid form. Just how distant? About 30 times further away from the Sun than Earth! Such a revelation would shatter our assumptions about water worlds, and force us to rethink the processes behind the existence of liquid water on celestial bodies separated by billions of miles from the nearest stars. But let’s delve into the very he o fly through the corona – the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, which is much hotter than its surface, reaching 2 million degrees Fahrenheit [1,100,000 °C]. This image was made by the probe from inside the corona as it rushed through this hellish realm. The Sun’s outer layers are like a giant pot of boiling water, full of bubbling energy. Huge bubbles of charged plasma move around, creating the Sun’s dynamic atmosphere. And sometimes, it splashes chunks of plasma into the cosmos. Billion brought us an even more vibrant view of the Sun, like this mosaic of 25 images taken in ultraviolet light. And a series of extremely close snapshots. But even that fades in comparison with the 4-meter Earth-based Inouye Solar Telescope. This technological marvel has managed to observe the Sun as if it was under a microscope in one of our laboratories. And the images it can produce are as large as the entire planet Earth. What you see in this image are huge cell-like structures, each as big as T e spectacular, but they aren’t just that, they offer a glimpse into what the true nature of these celestial bodies are, and often change our entire perspective.