There are 8 planets in the solar system. Among them, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called ‘planets of the Jupiter system’ because they are as large as Jupiter. There is one time every 176 years when the planets of the Jupiter system line up similarly. In line with this period, a probe was sent to observe the planets of the Jupiter system at once.
In August and September 1977, the US launched the Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 space probes in succession. Voyager means navigator. Their goal is to observe the planets of the Jupiter system and sail beyond the solar system to interstellar. I, who was a freshman in high school at the time, was shocked. He’s only been on the moon for a few years, but out of the blue, he has launched two probes to observe the faraway universe. Admiration erupted at the mighty power of the United States and the intellectual curiosity of NASA.
Voyager 2 made so many discoveries that it might be called ‘the greatest navigator in history’. He observed Jupiter in July 1979, Saturn in August 1981, Uranus in January 1986 and Neptune in February 1989, then left the solar system in 2018 and is now flying between stars. . Most of the information we know regarding Uranus and Neptune comes from Voyager 2.
Voyager 1 was launched later but faster than Voyager 2, reaching Jupiter in January 1979 and Saturn in August 1980. She uncovered the complex structure of Saturn’s rings and also discovered the presence of a dense atmosphere on her moon, Titan. Voyager 1 was originally scheduled to explore Pluto following Saturn, but NASA scientists, fascinated by Titan, gave up Pluto observations and decided to orbit Titan to investigate further. It cannot be without great curiosity and a bold decision.
In October 1997, the Cassini-Haygens was launched to explore only Saturn, this time, and successfully entered Saturn’s orbit in July 2004. It is a combination of the main body ‘Cassini’ and the lander ‘Hawigens’ to land on the Titan moon, and it is named following astronomers Cassini and Huygens who observed Saturn in the 17th century.
The Cassini-Huygens has been transmitting a lot of information and photos in close proximity to Saturn and its moons, and in 2005, the Huygens landed on Titan to collect data. Cassini’s unexpected achievement was the discovery of new facts regarding the ‘Enceladus’ moon. It confirmed the existence of a sea that spewed a column of water from Enceladus. Attention quickly turned to Enceladus. Scientists passed Cassini through a column of gas and water ejected from Enceladus, where they eventually found the presence of water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia. This is evidence that life can exist.
Cassini has been active for more than 10 years, smashing Saturn-related information, and ended its mission by entering Saturn’s atmosphere and oxidizing it in order to block the transmission of bacteria, viruses, and radioactivity from the probe to life that may exist on Saturn. This, too, was unplanned, and NASA scientists decided.
With the successful launch of the Nuri on the 21st of last month, we also took a big step in space development. Although there is a gap of several decades with the United States and the size of the related budget is incomparable, what does this mean, the beginning is only half. Here, let’s recall an interview previously conducted by Lee Sang-ryul, president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
“For 30 years, we have only been able to do follow-up research, but this time, we are going to create an organization that can escape from pursuit-type research.” It sounds like a promise to create a free research atmosphere like NASA to do quirky and quirky research. faith goes Good luck!
Nuriho’s excitement continues this month. This is because the first observation results of the ‘James-Webb Astronomical Telescope’, launched by NASA on Christmas Eve last year, are scheduled to be released. The scientific community is full of anticipation, as it has already been known to greatly outperform the Hubble Telescope in test observations. The first release date is ‘July 12, 2022 10:30am EDT’. It is July 12 at 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time, and it is 11:30 PM on July 12, our time.
Jeon Jae-young, CEO of Corel Technology Co., Ltd. / Doctor of Engineering
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