The Solar System is one of many planetary systems in the galaxy. Robotic space probes, the Apollo program landings of humans on the Moon, and space telescopes have vastly increased human knowledge about atmospheric, geologic, and electromagnetic phenomena on other planets, giving rise to the new field of planetary science. Observations of Solar System bodies with other types of electromagnetic radiation became possible with radio astronomy, infrared astronomy, ultraviolet astronomy, X-ray astronomy, and gamma-ray astronomy. The composition of stars and planets was investigated with spectroscopy. Since then, incremental knowledge was not only about the Solar System, but the outer space and its deep-sky objects also. Clear distinction was not made until circa mid-17th century. Telescopic observations resulted in the discovery of moons and rings around planets, and new planets, comets and the asteroids the recognition of planets as other worlds, Earth as other planet, and stars as other suns the characterization of the Solar System as an entity in itself, and the determination of the distances to some nearby stars.įor millennia, what today is known to be the Solar System was regarded for generations as the contents of the " whole universe", so advances in the knowledge of both mostly paralleled. The collection of precise observations in the early modern period and the invention of the telescope helped determine the overall structure of the Solar System. Ancient astronomers were able to make geometric observations with various instruments. ![]() In ancient and medieval times, only objects visible to the naked eye: the Sun, the Moon, the five classical planets, and comets, along with phenomena now known to take place in Earth's atmosphere, like meteors and aurora, were known. This includes the Sun, Earth and the Moon, the major planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, their satellites, as well as smaller bodies including comets, asteroids, and dust. Schmitt, an astronaut in the Apollo 17 mission, with the Moon and Earth in the backgroundĭiscovery and exploration of the Solar System is observation, visitation, and increase in knowledge and understanding of Earth's "cosmic neighborhood".
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