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COSMOS AS SEEN BY SCIENCE GOOD,RESEARCH SITES AND INFORMATION

The Nine Planets is a collection of information about our Solar System intended for a general audience with little technical background. No special expertise or knowledge is needed; all technical and astronomical terms and proper names are defined in the glossary. The bulk of this material should be familiar to planetary scientists and astronomers but they may find a few interesting tidbits, too.

   This document consists of about 100 WWW "pages", one page for each major body in the Solar System. Each page has:

a large picture of its object and usually several      smaller thumbnail images (all linked to their full-size originals) some scientific and historical facts about it, if the object has satellites then its page has a      table of data on them and links to their pages, links to more images and information about the object      elsewhere on the Web, and a list of open issues for which we as yet have no      answers.

   To truly justify the title of "Multimedia Tour", I've also included:

short sound clips from Holst's The Planets (about 10 seconds or 180k each) for seven of the      planets; sound clips of my mellifluous voice pronouncing      some of the more unusual names; links to "movies" of a few objects.

   There are also a few miscellaneous pages: on planetary science spacecraft, the glossary, a comprehensive list of planetary images available elsewhere on the Net, some bits of history, several pages of data and a special plea for your support of the space program.

   The pages of this document are organized in a hierarchy based on the primary-satellite relationship. In addition, there are many hyperlinks enabling the interactive viewer to jump around and view the pages in many ways. (If you "get lost" you can always jump back to the table of contents.)

   At the bottom of each page is a set of links to other related pages. To visit the next body in an ordered traversal of the solar system choose the link immediately to the right of the name of the current page. You can also go back to the previous page, the "parent" page, the table of contents or to the detailed data page.

   I've chosen ten of the most interesting bodies and linked them into an Express Tour. If you don't have time for the full tour, don't miss these.

And if you want to read offline or just explore in more depth, visit The Nine Planets Bookstore.

Hints

Many of the images here will look much better if your system uses at least 16 bits per pixel.

If you're having trouble viewing something, see the Technical Help appendix for some hints.

It will also go faster (for you and everyone else) if you use the mirror site closest to you.

Other Solar System Info

Views of The Solar System, by Calvin J. Hamilton formerly of the Los Alamos      National Laboratory (now maintained at the Hawaiian Astronomical Society      but still referred to here as "LANL") The Nine Planets - For Kids, a version of this site tailored for      younger audiences Kids Astronomy, another nice astronomy site for a younger audience Universe Today - Space news from around the Internet, updated every weekday. StarChild,      A learning center for young astronomers Welcome to the Planets from Jet Propulsion Laboratory ("JPL");      direct from "the source" Planetary Tour by Scientific American Exploring the Planets from the National Air and Space Museum The Solar System by Ken Edgett of Arizona State      University ("ASU"); somewhat smaller than the above Sol Station Regional Planetary Image Facility at the Smithsonian Institution,      Washington DC ("RPIF") The Solar System from the Royal Greenwich Observatory ("RGO") National Space Science Data Center Photo Gallery ("NSSDC") and a variety of information      at the Planetary Sciences home page Virtual Solar System from the National Geographic Society NASA's Planetary      Science Research Discoveries, readable but peer-reviewed articles on current research Planetary Tour Guide compiled by Gordon Johnston of NASA      HQ. Browse the Solar System from USGS StarDate Guide To The Solar System from McDonald Observatory Planets and the Solar System, a resource list from SEDS Browse the Solar System (mostly data) from USGS Flagstaff Updates to Jay Pasachoff's textbook Class notes by Nick Strobel of Bakersfield College Class notes by Joseph Cain of Florida State University Our Solar System from NASA Spacelink Solar System Live, the Interactive Orrery of the Web. The Celestial Times -- where to find the planets for the current month NASA's Twelve Year Planetary Ephemeris provides detailed and accurate      geocentric positions The Dundee Astronomy Page also has data about the positions of      the planets in the sky Planetary Remote Sensing (part of the awesome Remote Sensing Tutorial by Nicholas M. Short Sr.) Planetary Tour Guide Windows to the Universe, from the University of Michigan (very nice) A Space Library, simulated views of the solar system, maps and more (from JPL)

Most of the inline pictures here come from these sources, especially the first two. Without their efforts and the efforts of all the scientists and engineers at NASA and JPL this tour would not be possible.

Other Astronomical Pages

Bad Astronomy, many popular misconceptions clarified by Phil Plait Astronomy educational resources from the ASP Astronomy Activities Astronomy Unbound, an electronic text The Web Nebulae, a look at some of the most visually interesting objects      outside the Solar System The Messier Catalog from SEDS Images of the Messier objects from the Digitized Sky Survey The Constellations and their Stars by Chris Dolan Space Physics Textbook ExInEd page (nifty Hypercard Electronic      PictureBooks) from Space Telescope Science Institute Amazing Space Stars and Galaxies from Armagh Planetarium Sky Data -- dates and times of various      astronomical events Earth      & Sky, transcripts      from the popular radio show ISPEC Virtual Learning Center; lots of WWW references The Planets and Their Children-A      Blockbook of Medieval Popular Astrology The Basics of Spaceflight from JPL; includes a nice general astronomy tutorial GUSTAV HOLST: The Planets .aiff sound clips and info Encyclopedia      Mythica

Where to go next

The full tour continues with the Overview (or if you're in a hurry take the Express Tour). The names at the bottom of each page provide access to the next world in the full tour and a few other related pages; the icons provide access to the table of contents, the page of detailed data and this site's "home page".

If you haven't already, please switch to the mirror site closest to you.

... Introduction ... Overview ... Sun ... Data