The Solar System

This site complete with fun moving graphics, explains what retrograde motion is, why it occurs and how Ptolemy and Capernicus explained its occurrence.

The Nine Planets is an overview of the history, mythology, and current scientific knowledge of each of the planets and moons in our solar system. Each page has text and images, some have sounds and movies, most provide references to additional related information. Interplanetary spacecraft have revolutionized planetary science. Very little of this document would have been possible without the space program. A textbook on the Solar System and the spacecraft that have explored it.

The Jet propulsion Laboratory is responsible for such missions as Voyager I and II, the mars global surveyer and Cassini. Here you can look up the full history, released pictures and current status of these gound breaking missions.

Galileo is a space probe to Jupiter, currently orbiting the planet after dropping its atmospheric probe into Jupiter on December 7, 1995. JPL's Galileo site provides up-to-date information on the status of the mission, news items, and science from the mission.

An excellent summary of the scientific evidence and reasoning which led to the conclusion that life once existed on Mars

A slide set of images of and from Mars, this resource has information about a wide variety of topics as captions for the pictures. This includes images of landslides, canyons, volcanoes, water erosion features, and so on.

Mars Pathfinder was launched towards Mars on December 4, 1996. This mission will place a lander on the Martian surface and deploy a rover, Sojourner, to explore the surface.

The Clementine space probe imaged most of the Moon's surface. This site provides an interactive browser for examining images returned by the space probe, including the less explored lunar poles and far side. A gallery of images from Clementine is also available.

webmaster: Laura Davies
Updated: 11.14.05