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The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
14 April 1970: Farthest distance from Earth traveled by humans. USA (NASA) Apollo 13 [29] [note 1] 24 September 1970: First automatic sample return from the Moon. USSR Luna 16: 17 November 1970: First rover on another celestial body (the Moon). First lunar rover. USSR Lunokhod 1: 12 December 1970: First X-ray orbital observatory. USA (NASA ...
17 August 1970 First Venus lander and the first spacecraft to "soft" land on another planet (with some data returned from the surface) [18] [161] [162] Luna 16: 12 September 1970 First robotic lunar sample return [10] [163] Zond 8: 20 October 1970 Lunar flyby and return to Earth [46] [164] [165] Luna 17/Lunokhod 1: 10 November 1970 First remote ...
Over the following three centuries, only a few more moons were discovered. Missions to other planets in the 1970s, most notably the Voyager 1 and 2 missions, saw a surge in the number of moons detected, and observations since the year 2000, using mostly large, ground-based optical telescopes, have discovered many more, all of which are irregular.
Voyager 2 subsequently approached Saturn 9 months later with a gravity assist to further it towards Uranus. In January 1986, Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to visit Uranus. During its flyby, it discovered 10 new moons, 2 new rings, and a magnetic field tilted at 55 degrees off-axis and off-center.
There are 293 confirmed moons in our cosmic neighborhood. By studying these worlds, astronomers hope to learn about ancient asteroid collisions, space volcanoes, and the origins of life itself.
During the 1970s, the Soviet Union directed its energies to human habitation of space stations of increasingly long durations. In the 1980s, the United States began launching its Space Shuttles , which carried larger crews and thus could increase the number of people in space at a given time.
Eventually, new moons were discovered also around Uranus starting in 1787 by Herschel, [23] around Neptune starting in 1846 by William Lassell [24] and around Mars in 1877 by Asaph Hall. [25] Further apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the outer planets led Percival Lowell to conclude that yet another planet, "Planet X", must lie beyond ...