The landscapes of Earth have been shaped by volcanoes. We’ve long been in awe of their destructive beauty. But only recently have we discovered that volcanism exists beyond Earth. The planets and moons of the solar system have volcanoes that are even more extraordinary that those of our home planet. The largest volcano of the solar system – three times the height of Everest – is on Mars. The most violent volcano is on a moon of Jupiter. Huge icy geysers fountain out into space from a moon orbiting Saturn. Horizon: Space Volcanoes, BBC 2017
Iceland: This small country has more types of volcanoes and geological wonders packed into it than anywhere else in the world. ibid.
It’s so big you could fit a million Earths inside it. It’s so heavy its gravity controls the entire solar system. Journey to the Edge of the Universe, National Geographic 2008
The craters paint a picture of an intensely violence period, of a solar system littered with cosmic debris. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe: Birth of the Planet I, Channel 4 2008
Our solar system consists of one star and some debris. Professor Carl Sagan
We’ve not yet found anything quite like our solar system. Professor Alex Filippenko
But despite what he’d promised, Galileo clearly came down on the side of the sun at the centre. But worst of all what he was really saying is there are truths that go beyond the realms of religion. Or as he once put it the Bible teaches us how to go to Heaven not how the heavens go. Make no mistake this was a huge challenge to the Church. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science, BBC 2010
The Solar System: Our home. Vast, majestic and peaceful. Thin again: once there was nothing here but a huge thin cloud of gas. Birth of the Solar System
But eventually a bold new theory emerges: a theory suggesting that in the early solar system there were not eight but around twenty planet-sized objects orbiting the sun. ibid.
Beyond our solar system lie billions of other stars. Many with planets of their own. ibid.
Beyond the Kuiper Belt, far beyond ... is the oort cloud. An enormous swarm of perhaps trillions of icy bodies – the comets – which are left over from the earliest days of the solar system. David J Helfand, Quest University Canada
Not long ago we thought our solar system began with the sun and ended with Pluto 4.8 billion kilometres away. Beyond Pluto we thought space was empty. But then in the ’90s astronomers saw things out past Pluto in an completely unknown region of the solar system – they’re called it the Kuiper Belt. Extreme Universe s1e4: Edge of Space, National Geographic 2010
The Kuiper Belt nearly doubled the Solar System as we know it. ibid.
The outer reaches are weird and wonderful. Lakes of liquid methane on a moon that resembles early Earth in a deep freeze. A moon that spews brimstone. Another that vents nitrogen. Moons that celebrate the exotic and the eccentric. Moons however rugged that are mere creatures of their gigantic masters. Solar Empire: Edge of Darkness, Discovery 1997
Voyagers I & II have travelled billions of miles into space. And Voyager II is still sending back data. ibid.
Then, I realized that there is an indigenous presence in the Solar System. It’s us. So then I got to wondering what would happen if a more technologically advanced society moved next door to us, the way we moved next door to the American Indians. Sarah Zettel
It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system. Dan Quayle
I think we have a good chance of surviving long enough to colonize the solar system. Stephen Hawking
The solar system has no anxiety about its reputation. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Damn the Solar System. Bad light, planets too distant, pestered with comet,; feeble contrivance, could make a better one myself. Francis Jeffrey, attributed, cited Alessandra Celletti & Ettore Perozzi, Celestial Mechanics: The Waltz of the Planets
The laws of physics are a death warrant for the solar system. When our sun burns out everything will be destroyed. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e4: A New Solar System, Science 2010
It must have the right conditions to sustain life … It must be stable for billions of years … It must be sufficiently impressive to signal that we’ve become a galactic civilisation. ibid.
The solar system is both vast and ancient. At least 4.5 billion years old. Secrets of the Solar System I: A Grand Tour, Yesterday 2020
The Cold War made possible ever more ambitious missions in the ’60s and ’70s, each a matter of national pride. ibid.
Chinese astronomers were among the first to record the sun’s behaviour some 2,800 years ago. They noted that dark patches sometimes appeared on its surface and then disappeared. Secrets of the Solar System II: Sun & Mercury
Hale established that there were strong magnetic fields in sunspots on the Sun’s surface. ibid.
‘If it’s that hot, why does the gas stay on the Sun?’ ibid. Matthew Genge, planetary scientist
[Eugene] Parker thought differently: ‘I realised that we had a supersonic expansion of the outer atmosphere of the Sun.’ ibid.
‘A Carrington-level event, has been predicted now to cause trillions of dollars’ worth of damage, could wipe out power-grids.’ ibid. planetary scientist
Messenger orbited Mercury every twelve hours. In the four years from 2011 to 2015 it took more than 200,000 images of its surface. ibid.
‘We figured out the reason Venus is so bright and apparently featureless is because it’s completely covered in clouds.’ Secrets of the Solar System III: Venus: Living Hell? David Grinspoon
Before 1975 no human had ever seen an image from the surface of another planet, let alone Venus … a Russian mission. ibid.
Venus was found to have a very odd rotation. The planet seemed to be rotating backwards very slowly. A day on Venus is longer than its year. ibid.
Mariner 2 also made another startling discovery: there could be a hint that all was not well with Earth’s twin. Unlike our planet with its north and south magnetic poles, Venus doesn’t have any significant magnetic field. ibid.
Magellan provided an unprecedented view of the Venusian surface … a world of volcanoes of all kinds. ibid.
But down at the surface of Venus, things are altogether much calmer and deeply weird. ibid.
Can we terraform Venus? ibid.
‘So it’s July of 1965 and we’re about to have this encounter with Mars ’ … 134 million miles from Earth … ‘The flyby itself takes a matter of hours’ … ‘The pictures were everything’ … ‘It represented the first image of Mars taken in any place but the surface of the Earth.’ Secrets of the Solar System IV: The Great Red Hope, scientists
When the Mariner pictures came back, all it showed was craters just like the moon. It was a little bit of a disappointment. ibid.
That whole Martian empire was just smashed to red dust in an instant. This planet died. ibid.
Viking: between the launch and the arrival on Mars was about nine months. ibid.
Landing on Mars is one of the most difficult technological jobs that the human species has ever tried. ibid. Gentry Lee, Viking Science Analysis & Mission Planning Director
Well the pictures from each of the two Viking landers were each moments in human history to be remembered. They were geological snapshots into the workings of another world. ibid.
They are remains of Martian life. ibid. scientists look into rock
So the Near-[-Shoemaker 1996] mission was designed and conceived so it would actually show up at an asteroid, stop and be in close proximity to it. Secrets of the Solar System V: Asteroids & Comets, Daniel Scheeres
Comets are the most primitive objects we can study. What is say the source of this wonderful display in the sky? ibid. Gerhard Schwehm, Rosetta mission manager
865 billion kilometres from Earth … ‘It’s like a gigantic engine’ … Pioneer X was due to fly past Jupiter on 3rd December 1973 and these are some of the first images it sent back … During its closest approach to Jupiter, Pioneer X absorbed 1,000 times the lethal dose of radiation for a human being. Secrets of the Solar System VI: Jupiter
Finding out what causes this wild weather became a key scientific objective. ibid.
Jupiter has a diameter of 140,000 kilometres. And it was discovered that the planet rotates at about 40,000 kilometres an hour. ibid.
Galileo: the little probe that was going to have an extremely violent introduction to Jupiter. ibid.
Juno carried a camera called Junocam designed to provide pictures for the public on Earth. ibid.