Space

Space

NASA, Hubble, Space Exploration,
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On the space pages of Yakety we will help you find out all about space exploration, missions to the far reaches of outer space and the space shuttle is well represented with information on space transportation and links from here to the latest activities of NASA where deep space and the continued investigation of black holes brings the galaxies one step closer to the ordinary citizen.

You can get the latest news on the international space station, all about the latest satellites and their launches, you can learn about the hubble space telescope and the latest efforts and discoveries in microgravity and earth observation. Well documented is information on modern telecommunications, space science, space propulsion, space optics and other information. Every planet is included here with mentions and comments about the sun, mercury, venus, earth, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune and pluto.

The discoveries of space exploration including the solar system, asteroids, space propulsion, galileo and the hubble deep field are all covered in detail. The exploration of space has created a real thirst for knowledge in the kids of today. Space science and education in general sciences has never been more popular.

'That's one small step for man... one giant leap for mankind'
- NEIL ARMSTRONG, US Astronaut, the first man on the Moon, 1969

MILLENNIUM
The closing years of the last millennium saw space discovery move from snail speed to appropriately, rocket rate. In July 1969 man first set foot on the moon. The momentous event brought to reality the human race's earliest dream and its wildest imaginings. Twenty years later Voyager II skimmed over the clouds of remote planet Neptune. The journey had taken 12 years, the distance was five billion kilometres.

The operation was flawless and cameras began to relay hundreds of images of Neptune, its rings, its moons, while instruments on board measured magnetic fields, radio waves and the planet's other phenomena. But the Voyager II historic arrival at the outer limits of space in August 1989 was more than an astronomical red-letter day. This marked the final page of the first chapter in the exploration of the Solar System.

Earthlings have stared up in wonderment at the night sky, dotted like a field of daisies, ever since time began. But only recently in Earth's history have answers been found to the great puzzle.

Where does it all begin? Where does it all end? How do we start to understand 200,000, million light years? Whoever worked out that if all the stars, moons and planets of all the universes were a mere grain of sand, St Paul's Cathedral would be too small to contain the volume of sand? But it is a sad irony that as the solutions to space become clearer, our own view through the naked eye, is becoming dimmer, obscured by an ozone layer, more and more polluted from the emissions of modern life on Earth. It is as if the glorious field of daisies has been sprayed with a virulent weed killer.

Stars scribble on our eyes the frosty sagas, the gleaming cameos of unvanquished space
- HART CRANE, US Poet, 1899 - 1932

Chapter One of Space discovery was the period in which scientists glimpsed the first close-up images of the outer worlds within the Solar System, shot through the blinking eyes of spacecraft hurtling past into the mighty void. Chapter Two is in progress, and it is getting to know the planets more intimately by sending manned space stations into orbit for months on end. It is sending unmanned craft to land on them. Chapter Three will begin when the first human beings set foot on the next untrodden surface. This will be Mars, already visited by the unmaned Mariner 9, and scientists believe it could be as soon as 2015.

Our first reconnaissance of the Solar system has taken a remarkably short time when compared with the two thousand years it has taken to get the complete measure of our own planet. Until the final half of the last century our knowledge of the planets was rudimentary. Now the map of the universe is as clear as our own world atlas.With the onset of the 1960's our blurred view of the big wide yonder became more illuminated via latest technology. And with the aid of the Russia and America's manned space probes, an exciting new dimension of human force continues to be forged. The latest discoveries are beamed back into our homes via the wonder of TV pictures.

JUPITER & MARS
Now that spacecraft have shown us the real character of the outer planets it is a greater marvel that the earlier star-watchers managed to discover anything at all. We can see the five nearest planets on a clear 'unpolluted' night sky with the naked eye. Mercury and the much brighter Venus shine in the dawn and he twilight dusk twinkling their 'good night' and 'good morning' salutations - Venus is the brightest object in the sky, barring the Sun and Moon. The other planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn also appear as brilliant stars suspended high in the midnight sky - but to the naked eye they are no more than pinpricks of distant light.

Uranus, the planet beyond Saturn, is so far away that it is barely visible without the aid of a telescope. It remained unseen and unnamed until 1781 when amateur astronomer William Herschel found it one night while scanning the star-spangled sky with his personally built telescope (designed by Isaac Newton). The momentous discovery brought stardom not only to Uranus, but to the Prussian born Herschel and his unique telescope. Herschel worked in England and was appointed Astronomer Royal. His name is forever linked to great scientific discovery.

Herschel's earlier discovery was heightened further by the visit of Voyager 200 years later. It confirmed what scientists had long believed existed on the giant planet, four times the Earth's diameter. Mysterious Uranus had five moons moving in orbit around it. Herschel had located only two moons. He named them Oberon and Titania. Although scientists know a great deal more about the interior of Uranus, its magnetic field, its meteorology, its geology, the great planet has retained much of its mystery even to the close scrutiny of the Voyager. Until he next spacecraft can get nearer to it, Uranus will remain the great enigma.