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5 votes
0 answers
147 views

Probing gas giant planets by descending through a cyclones's "eye"?

On Earth cyclones have regions of calm weather commonly known as eyes. They appear to create tunnels spreading from the top of the atmosphere down to the sea level. Wikipedia article mentions their ...
Presto's user avatar
  • 151
29 votes
6 answers
9k views

Why are probes that tend to explore outer system always launched to go outwards instead of straight upwards or downwards?

Let's take a look at the trajectory of variety probe missions. New Horizons and Ultima Thule will be 4.1 billion miles away when it visits the Kuiper Belt object. This chart shows the path of New ...
not_Prince's user avatar
  • 1,507
6 votes
1 answer
5k views

Why has no lander or rover visited Hellas Planitia on Mars?

While with this weeks discovery, I am sure everyone is waiting for the inevitable trip to Palantir Crater, I noticed that one Mars' largest crater, Hellax Planitia has never been visited by a lander ...
Skylion's user avatar
  • 197
14 votes
3 answers
3k views

Did we know the gas planets were truly gaseous before Pioneer 10?

I'm asking for historical scientific knowledge of our understanding of the outer planets, which seems hard to come by. Pioneer 10 was the first probe to an outer planet (Jupiter). Before then, did we ...
DrZ214's user avatar
  • 4,606
6 votes
3 answers
712 views

How does an atmospheric probe measure temperature during descent?

I heard that the Galileo spacecraft sent Galileo Probe into Jupiter, and it reported temperatures reaching 153 degrees Celsius. The question is, when you send a probe crashing into a planet that has ...
deostroll's user avatar
  • 233
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

How do we measure the atmospheres of Solar system planets?

How much is it possible to measure from Earth and how accurately without sending probes to the planets? I am curious about how atmospheric boundary (altitude), atmospheric pressure, scale height were ...
Zilvinas's user avatar
  • 153
3 votes
1 answer
308 views

Is Cassini equipped for detection of non-water-based exobiology?

Looking at one of the latest images of Titan's north pole as taken by Cassini probe made me curious how well equipped this NASA's probe actually is to detect non-water-based exobiology?   &...
TildalWave's user avatar
  • 76.4k