Extra Info- Solar Probes

Solar probes

These are solar observation probes designed to operate in heliocentric orbit or at one of the Earth-Sun Lagrangian points. The list excludes Earth-orbiting solar observatories.

Spacecraft		Organization	Date	Type	Status	Notes	Image
Pioneer 5		NASA/ DOD	March–April 1960	orbiter	success	measured magnetic field phenomena, solar flare particles, and ionization in the interplanetary region
Pioneer 6		NASA	December 1965 – still contactable in 2000	orbiter	success	network of solar-orbiting "space weather" monitors, observing solar wind, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields
Pioneer 7		NASA	August 1966 – still contactable in 1995	orbiter	success
Pioneer 8		NASA	December 1967 – still contactable in 2001	orbiter	success
Pioneer 9		NASA	November 1968 – May 1983	orbiter	success
Pioneer-E		NASA	27 August 1969	orbiter	failure	intended as part of the Pioneer 6–9 network; failed to reach orbit
Helios A		NASA/ BWF	November 1974 – 1982	orbiter	success	observations of solar wind, magnetic and electric fields, cosmic rays and cosmic dust between Earth and Sun
Helios B		NASA/ BWF	January 1976 – 1985?	orbiter	success
ISEE-3		NASA	1978–1982	orbiter	success	observed solar phenomena in conjunction with earth-orbiting ISEE-1 and ISEE-2; later renamed International Cometary Explorer (ICE) and directed to Comet Giacobini-Zinner
Ulysses (first pass)		ESA/ NASA	1994	orbiter	success	south polar observations
			1995			north polar observations
WIND		NASA	November 1994 — still returning data (as of December 2010)[11]	orbiter	success	solar wind measurements
SOHO		ESA/ NASA	May 1996 – mission extended until at least December 2012[13]	orbiter	success	investigation of Sun's core, corona, and solar wind; comet discoveries
ACE		NASA	August 1997 – still returning data (as of December 2010)[15]	orbiter	success	solar wind observations
Ulysses (second pass)		ESA/ NASA	2000	orbiter	success	south polar observations
			2001			north polar observations
Genesis		NASA	2001–2004	orbiter/ sample return	partial success	solar wind sample return; crash landed on return to Earth, some samples salvaged
STEREO A		NASA	December 2006 – still active (as of December 2010)	orbiter	success	stereoscopic imaging of coronal mass ejections and other solar phenomena
STEREO B		NASA	December 2006 – still active (as of December 2010)	orbiter	success
Ulysses (third pass)		ESA/ NASA	2007	orbiter	success	south polar observations
			2008		partial success	north polar observations; some data returned despite failing power and reduced transmission capacity
Solar Sentinels		NASA	2015	multi-probe orbiter	planned	six probes watching the sun
Solar Orbiter		ESA	2015	orbiter	planned	close-range solar observations
Solar Probe Plus		NASA	2015	orbiter	under study	close-range coronal observations
		I got this data from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Solar_System_probes There are many other datas from Planets' Probes

When Galaxies Collide, 280 Million Light Years Away

130 years ago, astronomers discovered Stephan's Quintent--a compact group of galaxies 280 million light years from Earth. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured the X-rays generated by the interstellar collision, as one of the galaxies is sucked through the center of the group at 2 million miles per hour.

The ridge of blue in the center represent the X-rays emitted by the collision, as shock wave heats the galaxy's gasses.

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-amp-space/article/2009-07/when-galaxies-collide-280-million-light-years-away

Light- year

A light- year is a unit of length, equal to just under 10 trillion kilometers (10¹⁶ metres, 10 pentameters or about 6 trillion miles). As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year.

To measure really long distances, people use a unit called a light year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second). Therefore, a light second is 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers). A light year is the distance that light can travel in a year, or:

186,000 miles/second * 60 seconds/minute * 60 minutes/hour * 24 hours/day * 365 days/year = 5,865,696,000,000 miles/year

A light year is 5,865,696,000,000 miles (9,460,800,000,000 kilometers).

Using a light year as a distance measurement has another advantage, it helps you determine age. If a star is 1 million light years away, and the light from that star has traveled at the speed of light to reach us, then it has taken the star's light 1 million years to get here, and the light we are seeing was created 1 million years ago. So the star we are seeing is really how the star looked a million years ago, not how it looks today. In the same way, our sun is about 8 light minutes away. If the sun were to suddenly explode right now, we wouldn't know about it for eight minutes because that is how long it would take for the light of the explosion to get here.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/astronomy-terms/question94.htm

Planets

Mercury:

Orbit	57,910,000 km (0.38 AU) from Sun
Diameter	4,880 km
Mass	3.30e23 kg
Moons	0

http://nineplanets.org/mercury.html

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest planet in the Solar System. Mercury is slightly smaller in diameter than the moons Ganymede and Titan but more than twice as massive.


Venus:

Orbit	108,200,000 km (0.72 AU) from Sun
Diameter	12,103.6 km
Mass	4.869e24 kg
Moons	0

http://nineplanets.org/venus.html

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the sixth largest. Venus' orbit is the most nearly circular of that of any planet, with an eccentricity of less than 1%.



Earth:

Orbit	149,600,000 km (1.00 AU) from Sun
Diameter	12,756.3 km
Mass	5.972e24 kg
Moons	1

http://nineplanets.org/earth.html

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest.



Mars:

Orbit	227,940,000 km (1.52 AU) from Sun
Diameter	6,794 km
Mass	6.4219e23 kg
Moons	2

http://nineplanets.org/mars.html

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the seventh largest.



Jupiter:

Orbit	778,330,000 km (5.20 AU) from Sun
Diameter	142,984 km (equatorial)
Mass	1.900e27 kg
Moons	63

http://nineplanets.org/jupiter.html

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest. Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined (the mass of Jupiter is 318 times that of Earth).



Saturn:

Orbit	1,429,400,000 km (9.54 AU) from Sun
Diameter	120,536 km (equatorial)
Mass	5.68e26 kg
Moons	62

http://nineplanets.org/saturn.html

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest.



Uranus:

Orbit	2,870,990,000 km (19.218 AU) from Sun
Diameter	51,118 km (equatorial)
Mass	8.683e25 kg
Moons	27

http://nineplanets.org/uranus.html

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and the third largest (by diameter). Uranus is larger in diameter but smaller in mass than Neptune.



Neptune:

Orbit	4,504,000,000 km (30.06 AU) from Sun
Diameter	49,532 km (equatorial)
Mass	1.0247e26 kg
Moons	13

http://nineplanets.org/neptune.html

Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the fourth largest (by diameter). Neptune is smaller in diameter but larger in mass than Uranus.


Pluto (Dwarf Planet):

Orbit	5,913,520,000 km (39.5 AU) from the Sun (average)
Diameter	2274 km
Mass	1.27e22 kg
Moons	3