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Moons of our Solar System
Moons of our Solar System

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Week 7: Exploring moons

Introduction

Find out about the missions that gave us our first close-up views of distant moons: Voyagers 1 and 2, Galileo and Cassini-Huygens. Learn why probes are crashed into giant planets rather than risk crashing into a moon.

Here Jess reflects on the past three weeks and then introduces the missions that have taught us most about other moons. Windsurfing on Titan anyone?

Please note that when Jess refers to Titan as ‘the only moon in the Solar System with an atmosphere’ she should have said that it is the only one with a ‘dense atmosphere’.

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By the end of this week, you will have an understanding of:

  • the missions that have explored moons in the outer Solar System
  • the surface and atmosphere of Titan
  • some medium-sized icy moons.