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Voyager 2
''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and enabled further encounters with the ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). The only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, it was the List of artificial objects leaving the Solar System, third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity, which allowed it to leave the Solar System#Farthest regions, Solar System. Launched 16 days before its twin ''Voyager 1'', the primary mission of the spacecraft was to study the outer planets and its extended mission is to study interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. ''Voyager 2'' successfully fulfilled its primary mission of visiting the Exploration of Jupiter, Jovian system in 1979, the Exploration of Saturn, Saturnian system in 1981, Exploration of Uranus, Uranian system in 1986, and the Exploration of Neptune, Neptunian system ...
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NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States's civil list of government space agencies, space program, aeronautics research and outer space, space research. National Aeronautics and Space Act, Established in 1958, it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the American space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. It has since led most of America's space exploration programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968–1972 Apollo program missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Commercial Crew Program and oversees the development of the Orion (spacecraft), Orion spacecraft and the Sp ...
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National Aeronautics And Space Administration
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the American space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. It has since led most of America's space exploration programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968–1972 Apollo program missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Commercial Crew Program and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the lunar Artemis program. NASA's science division is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System; advancing heliophysics through the effor ...
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Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times the mass of Earth. Compared to Uranus, its neighbouring ice giant, Neptune is slightly smaller, but more massive and denser. Being composed primarily of gases and liquids, it has no well-defined solid surface. Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 julian year (astronomy), years at an orbital distance of . It is named after Neptune (mythology), the Roman god of the sea and has the astronomical symbol representing Trident of Poseidon, Neptune's trident. Neptune is not visible to the unaided eye and is the only planet in the Solar System that was not initially observed by direct empirical observation. Rather, unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus led Alexis Bouvard to hypothesise that its orbit was subject to gravitational Pe ...
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List Of Artificial Objects Leaving The Solar System
Several space probes and the upper stages of their launch vehicles are leaving the Solar System, all of which were launched by NASA. Three of the probes, ''Voyager 1'', ''Voyager 2'', and ''New Horizons,'' are still functioning and are regularly contacted by radio communication, while ''Pioneer 10'' and ''Pioneer 11'' are now derelict. In addition to these spacecraft, some upper stages and Yo-yo de-spin, de-spin weights are leaving the Solar System, assuming they continue on their trajectories. These objects are leaving the Solar System because their velocity and direction are taking them away from the Sun, and at their distance from the Sun, its gravitational pull is not sufficient to pull these objects back or into orbit. They are not impervious to the gravitational pull of the Sun and are being slowed, but are still traveling in excess of escape velocity to leave the Solar System and coast into interstellar space. Planetary exploration probes *''Pioneer 10'' – launched i ...
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University Of Iowa
The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and 7 professional degrees. On an urban 1,880-acre campus on the banks of the Iowa River, the University of Iowa is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". In fiscal year 2021, research expenditures at Iowa totaled $818 million. The university was the original developer of the Master of Fine Arts degree, and it operates the Iowa Writers' Workshop, whose alumni include 17 of the university's 46 Pulitzer Prize winners. Iowa is a member of the Association of American Universities and the Universities Research Association. Among public universities in the United States, UI was the first to beco ...
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Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all of Earth's water is contained in its global ocean, covering Water distribution on Earth, 70.8% of Earth's crust. The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form of continental landmasses within Earth's land hemisphere. Most of Earth's land is at least somewhat humid and covered by vegetation, while large Ice sheet, sheets of ice at Polar regions of Earth, Earth's polar polar desert, deserts retain more water than Earth's groundwater, lakes, rivers, and Water vapor#In Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric water combined. Earth's crust consists of slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's outer core, Earth has a liquid outer core that generates a ...
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Interstellar Medium
The interstellar medium (ISM) is the matter and radiation that exists in the outer space, space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as cosmic dust, dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding intergalactic medium. The energy that occupies the same volume, in the form of electromagnetic radiation, is the interstellar radiation field. Although the density of atoms in the ISM is usually far below that in the best laboratory vacuums, the mean free path between collisions is short compared to typical interstellar lengths, so on these scales the ISM behaves as a gas (more precisely, as a Plasma (physics), plasma: it is everywhere at least slightly ionized), responding to pressure forces, and not as a collection of non-interacting particles. The interstellar medium is composed of multiple phases distinguished by whether matter is ionic, atomic, or molecular, and the temp ...
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Exploration Of Neptune
Neptune has been directly explored by one space probe, ''Voyager 2'', in 1989. , there are no confirmed future missions to visit the Neptunian system, although a tentative Chinese mission has been planned for launch. NASA, ESA, and independent academic groups have proposed future scientific missions to visit Neptune. Some mission plans are still active, while others have been abandoned or put on hold. Since the mid-1990s, Neptune has been studied from afar with telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based Keck telescope using adaptive optics. ''Voyager 2'' After ''Voyager 2'' visited Saturn successfully, it was decided to fund further missions to Uranus and Neptune. These missions were conducted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Neptunian mission was dubbed "Voyager Neptune Interstellar Mission". ''Voyager 2'' started taking navigation images of Neptune in May 1988. ''Voyager 2'' observation phase proper of Neptune began 5 June 1989, the spa ...
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Exploration Of Uranus
The exploration of Uranus has, to date, been through telescopes and a lone probe by NASA's ''Voyager 2'' spacecraft, which made its closest approach to Uranus on January 24, 1986. ''Voyager 2'' discovered 10 moons, studied the planet's cold atmosphere, and examined its ring system, discovering two new rings. It also imaged Uranus's five large moons, revealing that their surfaces are covered with impact craters and canyons. A number of dedicated exploratory missions to Uranus have been proposed, but none have been approved. ''Voyager 2'' ''Voyager 2'' made its closest approach to Uranus on January 24, 1986, coming within of the planet's cloud tops. This was the probe's first solo planetary flyby, since ''Voyager 1'' ended its tour of the outer planets at Saturn's moon Titan. Uranus is the third-largest and fourth most massive planet in the Solar System. It orbits the Sun at a distance of about and completes one orbit every 84 years. The length of a day on Uranus as measured ...
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Exploration Of Saturn
The exploration of Saturn has been performed solely by crewless probes. Three missions were flybys, which formed an extended foundation of knowledge about the system. The ''Cassini–Huygens'' spacecraft, launched in 1997, was in orbit from 2004 to 2017. Missions A list of previous and upcoming missions to the outer Solar System (including Saturn) can be found at the List of missions to the outer planets article. Flybys ''Pioneer 11'' flyby Saturn was first visited by ''Pioneer 11'' in September 1979. It flew within of the top of the planet's cloud layer. Low-resolution images were acquired of the planet and a few of its moons; the resolution of the images was not good enough to discern surface features. The spacecraft also studied the rings; among the discoveries were the thin F-ring and the fact that dark gaps in the rings are bright when viewed towards the Sun, or in other words, they are not empty of material. ''Pioneer 11'' also measured the temperature of Titan at 250 ...
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Exploration Of Jupiter
The exploration of Jupiter has been conducted via close observations by robotic spacecraft, automated spacecraft. It began with the arrival of ''Pioneer 10'' into the Moons of Jupiter, Jovian system in 1973, and, , has continued with eight further spacecraft missions in the vicinity of Jupiter and two more en route. All but one of these missions were undertaken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and all but four were Flyby (spaceflight), flybys taking detailed observations without landing or entering orbit. These Space probe, probes make Jupiter the most visited of the Solar System's outer planets as all missions to the outer Solar System have used Jupiter flybys. On July 5, 2016, spacecraft ''Juno (spacecraft), Juno'' arrived and entered the planet's orbit—the second craft ever to do so. Sending a craft to Jupiter is difficult due to large fuel requirements and the effects of the planet's harsh radiation environment. The first spacecraft to visit Jupi ...
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Heliosphere
The heliosphere is the magnetosphere, astrosphere, and outermost atmospheric layer of the Sun. It takes the shape of a vast, tailed bubble-like region of space. In plasma physics terms, it is the cavity formed by the Sun in the surrounding interstellar medium. The "bubble" of the heliosphere is continuously "inflated" by plasma originating from the Sun, known as the solar wind. Outside the heliosphere, this solar plasma gives way to the interstellar plasma permeating the Milky Way. As part of the interplanetary magnetic field, the heliosphere shields the Solar System from significant amounts of cosmic ionizing radiation; uncharged gamma rays are, however, not affected. Its name was likely coined by Alexander J. Dessler, who is credited with the first use of the word in the scientific literature in 1967. The scientific study of the heliosphere is heliophysics, which includes space weather and space climate. Flowing unimpeded through the Solar System for billions of kilo ...
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