Discovery and exploration of the Solar System - Wikipedia Discovery and exploration of the Solar System The Sun and planets of the Solar System. Pluto and the other dwarf planets are not shown. The relative sizes of objects are drawn to scale ; the distances between them are not. A photo of Earth ( circled ) taken by Voyager 1, 6.4 billion kilometers ( 4 billion miles ) away. The streaks of light are diffraction spikes radiating from the Sun ( off frame to the left ). This photograph is known as `` Pale Blue Dot ''. Discovery and exploration of the Solar System is observation, visitation, and increase in knowledge and understanding of Earth 's `` cosmic neighborhood ''. This includes the Sun, Earth and the Moon, the major planets including Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, their satellites, as well as smaller bodies including comets, asteroids, and dust. The Solar System -- our Sun 's system of planets, moons, and smaller debris -- is humankind 's cosmic backyard. Small by factors of millions compared to interstellar distances, the spaces between the planets are daunting, but technologically surmountable -- NASA Contents 1 History 2 Antiquity and first observations 3 Telescopic observations 4 Observations by spacecraft 4.1 Flybys 4.2 Orbiters, rovers and landers 4.3 Spacecraft exploration 5 Crewed exploration 6 Exploration survey 7 Sample return 8 See also 9 References History Earth 's atmosphere Pioneer space probe 's Quadrispherical Plasma Analyzer For many thousands of years, astronomers maintained a geocentric world view and did not recognize the existence of a Solar System. Most believed Earth was stationary at the center of the Universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved through the sky. Although the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos had speculated on a heliocentric reordering of the cosmos, Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century developed a mathematically predictive heliocentric system. His 17th - century successors, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton, developed a modern understanding of physics that led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that Earth moves around the Sun and that the planets are governed by the same physical laws that govern Earth. In more recent times, this led to the investigation of geological phenomena such as mountains and craters and seasonal meteorological phenomena such as clouds, dust storms, and ice caps on the other planets. Antiquity and first observations Main article : Timeline of Solar System astronomy Further information : Cosmology and Geocentric model This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( December 2010 ) Telescopic observations See also : Timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their moons A replica of Isaac Newton 's telescope. The first exploration of the Solar System was conducted by telescope, when astronomers first began to map those objects too faint to be seen with the naked eye. Galileo Galilei was the first to discover physical details about the individual bodies of the Solar System. He discovered that the Moon was cratered, that the Sun was marked with sunspots, and that Jupiter had four satellites in orbit around it. Christiaan Huygens followed on from Galileo 's discoveries by discovering Saturn 's moon Titan and the shape of the rings of Saturn. Giovanni Domenico Cassini later discovered four more moons of Saturn and the Cassini division in Saturn 's rings. The Sun photographed through a telescope with special solar filter. Sunspots and limb darkening can be clearly seen. Mercury is transiting in the lower middle of the Sun 's face. Edmond Halley realised in 1705 that repeated sightings of a comet were recording the same object, returning regularly once every 75 -- 76 years. This was the first evidence that anything other than the planets orbited the Sun. Around this time ( 1704 ), the term `` Solar System '' first appeared in English. In 1781, William Herschel was looking for binary stars in the constellation of Taurus when he observed what he thought was a new comet. Its orbit revealed that it was a new planet, Uranus, the first ever discovered. Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801, a small world between Mars and Jupiter that initially was considered a new planet. However, subsequent discoveries of thousands of other small worlds in the same region led to their eventual reclassification as asteroids. By 1846, discrepancies in the orbit of Uranus led many to suspect a large planet must be tugging at it from farther out. Urbain Le Verrier 's calculations eventually led to the discovery of Neptune. The excess perihelion precession of Mercury 's orbit led Le Verrier to postulate the intra-Mercurian planet Vulcan in 1859, but that would turn out to be an irrelevant thesis. Although it is debatable when the Solar System was truly `` discovered '', three 19th century observations determined its nature and place in the Universe beyond reasonable doubt. First, in 1838, Friedrich Bessel successfully measured a stellar parallax, an apparent shift in the position of a star created by Earth 's motion around the Sun. This was not only the first direct, experimental proof of heliocentrism, but also revealed, for the first time, the vast distance between the Solar System and the stars. Then, in 1859, Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, using the newly invented spectroscope, examined the spectral signature of the Sun and discovered that it was composed of the same elements as existed on Earth, establishing for the first time a physical link between Earth and the heavens. Then, Father Angelo Secchi compared the spectral signature of the Sun with those of other stars, and found them virtually identical. The realisation that the Sun was a star led to the hypothesis that other stars could have systems of their own, though this was not to be proven for nearly 140 years. Radar - imaging of 2006 DP, a small near - Earth asteroid that passed by Earth in early February 2014 Further apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the outer planets led Percival Lowell to conclude that yet another planet, `` Planet X '', must lie beyond Neptune. After his death, his Lowell Observatory conducted a search that ultimately led to Clyde Tombaugh 's discovery of Pluto in 1930. Pluto was, however, found to be too small to have disrupted the orbits of the outer planets, and its discovery was therefore coincidental. Like Ceres, it was initially considered to be a planet, but after the discovery of many other similarly sized objects in its vicinity it was reclassified in 2006 as a dwarf planet by the IAU. In 1992, the first evidence of a planetary system other than our own was discovered, orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257 + 12. Three years later, 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet around a Sunlike star, was discovered. As of 2017, 2687 extrasolar systems have been found. Also in 1992, astronomers David C. Jewitt of the University of Hawaii and Jane Luu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered 15760 Albion. This object proved to be the first of a new population, which became known as the Kuiper belt ; an icy analogue to the asteroid belt of which such objects as Pluto and Charon were deemed a part. Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz announced the discovery of Eris in 2005, a scattered disc object initially thought to be larger than Pluto, which would make it the largest object discovered in orbit around the Sun since Neptune. New Horizons ' fly - by of Pluto in July 2015 resulted in more - accurate measurements of Pluto, which is slightly larger, though less massive, than Eris. Observations by spacecraft Main article : Timeline of Solar System exploration Lineae on Europa by Galileo spacecraft Timeline of Solar System exploration. Artist 's conception of Pioneer 10, which passed the orbit of Pluto in 1983. The last transmission was received in January 2003, sent from approximately 82 AU away. The 45 -- 46 - year - old space probe is receding from the Sun at over 43,400 km / h ( 27,000 mph ), so long as it has not hit anything Since the start of the Space Age, a great deal of exploration has been performed by robotic spacecraft missions that have been organized and executed by various space agencies. All planets in the Solar System have now been visited to varying degrees by spacecraft launched from Earth. Through these unmanned missions, humans have been able to get close - up photographs of all the planets and, in the case of landers, perform tests of the soils and atmospheres of some. The first artificial object sent into space was the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1, launched in 1957, which successfully orbited Earth until 4 January the following year. The American probe Explorer 6, launched in 1959, was the first satellite to image Earth from space. Flybys The first successful probe to fly by another Solar System body was Luna 1, which sped past the Moon in 1959. Originally meant to impact with the Moon, it instead missed its target and became the first artificial object to orbit the Sun. Mariner 2 was the first planetary flyby, passing Venus in 1962. The first successful flyby of Mars was made by Mariner 4 in 1965. Mariner 10 first passed Mercury in 1974. The first probe to explore the outer planets was Pioneer 10, which flew by Jupiter in 1973. Pioneer 11 was the first to visit Saturn, in 1979. The Voyager probes performed a grand tour of the outer planets following their launch in 1977, with both probes passing Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980 -- 1981. Voyager 2 then went on to make close approaches to Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989. The Voyager probes are now far beyond Neptune 's orbit, and are on course to find and study the termination shock, heliosheath, and heliopause. According to NASA, both Voyager probes have encountered the termination shock at a distance of approximately 93 AU from the Sun. The first flyby of a comet occurred in 1985, when the International Cometary Explorer ( ICE ) passed by the comet Giacobini -- Zinner, whereas the first flybys of asteroids were conducted by the Galileo space probe, which imaged both 951 Gaspra ( in 1991 ) and 243 Ida ( in 1993 ) on its way to Jupiter. Launched on January 19, 2006, the New Horizons probe is the first man - made spacecraft to explore the Kuiper belt. This unmanned mission flew by Pluto in July 2015. The mission was extended to observe a number of other Kuiper belt objects, including a close flyby of ( 486958 ) 2014 MU on New Year 's Day, 2019. As of 2011, American scientists are concerned that exploration beyond the Asteroid Belt will hampered by a shortage of Plutonium - 238. Orbiters, rovers and landers Curiosity rover self - portrait at `` Rocknest '' ( October 31, 2012 ), with the rim of Gale Crater and the slopes of Aeolis Mons in the distance. In 1966, the Moon became the first Solar System body beyond Earth to be orbited by an artificial satellite ( Luna 10 ), followed by Mars in 1971 ( Mariner 9 ), Venus in 1975 ( Venera 9 ), Jupiter in 1995 ( Galileo ), the asteroid 433 Eros in 2000 ( NEAR Shoemaker ), Saturn in 2004 ( Cassini -- Huygens ), and Mercury and Vesta in 2011 ( MESSENGER and Dawn respectively ). Dawn is orbiting the asteroid -- dwarf planet Ceres as of 2015. The first probe to land on another Solar System body was the Soviet Luna 2 probe, which impacted the Moon in 1959. Since then, increasingly distant planets have been reached, with probes landing on or impacting the surfaces of Venus in 1966 ( Venera 3 ), Mars in 1971 ( Mars 3, although a fully successful landing did n't occur until Viking 1 in 1976 ), the asteroid 433 Eros in 2001 ( NEAR Shoemaker ), and Saturn 's moon Titan ( Huygens ) and the comet Tempel 1 ( Deep Impact ) in 2005. The Galileo orbiter also dropped a probe into Jupiter 's atmosphere in 1995 ; because Jupiter has no physical surface, it was destroyed by increasing temperature and pressure as it descended. To date, only two worlds in the Solar System, the Moon and Mars, have been visited by mobile rovers. The first robotic rover to visit another celestial body was the Soviet Lunokhod 1, which landed on the Moon in 1970. The first to visit another planet was Sojourner, which travelled 500 metres across the surface of Mars in 1997. The only manned rover to visit another world was NASA 's Lunar rover, which traveled with Apollos 15, 16 and 17 between 1971 and 1972. Spacecraft exploration Overview of some missions to the Solar System. Examples of missions # Spacecraft Launch year Mercury Venus Mars Ceres Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto End year Pioneer 10 1972 Flyby 2003 Pioneer 11 1973 Flyby Flyby 1995 Mariner 10 1973 Flyby Flyby Voyager 1 1977 Flyby Flyby -- 5 Voyager 2 1977 Flyby Flyby Flyby Flyby -- 6 Galileo Flyby Orbiter 2003 7 Ulysses Flyby 2009 8 Cassini Flyby Flyby Orbiter 2017 9 Mars Odyssey Orbiter -- 10 MER - A / B 2003 Rovers 2010 / -- 11 Mars Express 2003 Orbiter -- 12 MESSENGER Orbiter Flyby 2015 13 MRO 2005 Orbiter -- 14 Venus Express 2005 Orbiter 2014 15 New Horizons 2006 Flyby Flyby -- 16 Dawn 2007 Orbiter -- 17 Juno 2011 Orbiter -- 18 Curiosity ( MSL ) 2011 Rover -- See also the categories for missions to comets, asteroids, the Moon, and the Sun. Crewed exploration Owen Garriott on an Earth orbit EVA, 1973 Crewed exploration of the Solar System is currently confined to Earth 's immediate environs. The first human being to reach space ( defined as an altitude of over 100 km ) and to orbit Earth was Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut who was launched in Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. The first human to walk on the surface of another Solar System body was Neil Armstrong, who stepped onto the Moon on July 21, 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission ; five more Moon landings occurred through 1972. The United States ' reusable Space Shuttle flew 135 missions between 1981 and 2011. Five shuttles were built ; two were destroyed in accidents. The first orbital space station to host more than one crew was NASA 's Skylab, which successfully held three crews from 1973 to 1974. The first true human settlement in space was the Soviet space station Mir, which was continuously occupied for close to ten years, from 1989 to 1999. It was decommissioned in 2001, and its successor, the International Space Station, has maintained a continuous human presence in space since then. In 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded vehicle to reach space on a suborbital flight. That year, U.S. President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, which called for a replacement for the aging Shuttle, a return to the Moon and, ultimately, a crewed mission to Mars. Further information : Human spaceflight and Space exploration Exploration survey Bodies imaged up close : Solar System Sun ( star ) Jupiter ( planet ) Saturn ( planet ) Uranus ( planet ) Neptune ( planet ) Earth ( planet ) Venus ( planet ) Mars ( planet ) Ganymede ( moon of Jupiter ) Titan ( moon of Saturn ) Mercury ( planet ) Callisto ( moon of Jupiter ) Io ( moon of Jupiter ) Moon ( moon of Earth ) Europa ( moon of Jupiter ) Triton ( moon of Neptune ) Pluto ( Kuiper belt object ) Titania ( moon of Uranus ) Rhea ( moon of Saturn ) Oberon ( moon of Uranus ) Iapetus ( moon of Saturn ) Charon ( moon of Pluto ) Umbriel ( moon of Uranus ) Ariel ( moon of Uranus ) Dione ( moon of Saturn ) Tethys ( moon of Saturn ) Ceres ( belt asteroid ) Vesta ( belt asteroid ) Enceladus ( moon of Saturn ) Miranda ( moon of Uranus ) Proteus ( moon of Neptune ) Mimas ( moon of Saturn ) Hyperion ( moon of Saturn ) Phoebe ( moon of Saturn ) Janus ( moon of Saturn ) Amalthea ( moon of Jupiter ) Epimetheus ( moon of Saturn ) Thebe ( moon of Jupiter ) Lutetia ( belt asteroid ) Prometheus ( moon of Saturn ) Pandora ( moon of Saturn ) Mathilde ( belt asteroid ) Hydra ( moon of Pluto ) Helene ( moon of Saturn ) Nix ( moon of Pluto ) Ida ( belt asteroid ) Atlas ( moon of Saturn ) Telesto ( moon of Saturn ) Calypso ( moon of Saturn ) Phobos ( moon of Mars ) Eros ( near - Earth asteroid ) Pan ( moon of Saturn ) Deimos ( moon of Mars ) Gaspra ( belt asteroid ) Tempel 1 ( comet ) Šteins ( belt asteroid ) Daphnis ( moon of Saturn ) Borrelly ( comet ) Churyumov -- Gerasimenko ( comet ) Wild 2 ( comet ) Methone ( moon of Saturn ) Hartley 2 ( comet ) Dactyl ( moon of Ida ) Closely imaged object with only non-free images : Toutatis, Itokawa Objects imaged only at low resolution : Halley 's Comet, Siding Spring, Styx, Kerberos, Braille, Annefrank, Nereid, and Larissa ; see also the radar images at `` near - Earth object '' This box : view talk edit Sample return A Moon rock returned by Apollo 17 Moon ( Misc. missions including Apollo and Luna ) Comet dust ( Stardust ) Solar wind ( Genesis ) Asteroid ( Hayabusa ) See also : Meteorites and Cosmic dust See also List of Solar System probes Timeline of space exploration Timeline of Solar System exploration References ^ Jump up to : Solar System Exploration Jump up ^ Eric W. Weisstein ( 2006 ). `` Galileo Galilei ( 1564 -- 1642 ) ''. Wolfram Research. Retrieved 2010 - 10 - 27. Jump up ^ `` Discoverer of Titan : Christiaan Huygens ''. ESA Space Science. 2005. Retrieved 2010 - 10 - 27. Jump up ^ `` Giovanni Domenico Cassini ( June 8, 1625 -- September 14, 1712 ) ''. SEDS.org. Retrieved 2006 - 11 - 08. Jump up ^ `` Comet Halley ''. University of Tennessee. Retrieved 2006 - 12 - 27. Jump up ^ `` Etymonline : Solar System ''. Retrieved 2008 - 01 - 24. Jump up ^ `` Herschel, Sir William ( 1738 -- 1822 ) ''. enotes.com. Archived from the original on 2006 - 05 - 09. Retrieved 2006 - 11 - 08. Jump up ^ `` Discovery of Ceres : 2nd Centenary, January 1, 1801 -- January 1, 2001 ''. astropa.unipa.it. 2000. Retrieved 2006 - 11 - 08. ^ Jump up to : J.J. O'Connor and E.F. Robertson ( 1996 ). `` Mathematical discovery of planets ''. St. Andrews University. Retrieved 2006 - 11 - 08. Jump up ^ `` Spectroscopy and the Birth of Astrophysics ''. Center for History of Physics, a Division of the American Institute of Physics. Retrieved 2008 - 04 - 30. Jump up ^ `` Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia ''. Paris Observatory. Retrieved 2017 - 02 - 15. Jump up ^ Jane X. Luu and David C. Jewitt ( 2002 ). `` KUIPER BELT OBJECTS : Relics from the Accretion Disk of the Sun ''. MIT, University of Hawaii. Retrieved 2006 - 11 - 09. Jump up ^ Minor Planet Center. `` List of Trans - Neptunian Objects ''. Archived from the original on 2010 - 10 - 27. Retrieved 2010 - 10 - 27. Jump up ^ `` Eris ( 2003 UB313 ) ''. Solstation.com. 2006. Retrieved 2010 - 10 - 27. Jump up ^ Donald Savage ; Michael Mewhinney ( 2003 - 02 - 25 ). `` Farewell Pioneer 10 ''. NASA. Retrieved 2007 - 07 - 11. Jump up ^ `` Sputnik 1 ''. NASA. Retrieved 2009 - 07 - 30. Jump up ^ Randy Culp ( 2002 ). `` Time Line of Space Exploration ''. Archived from the original on 2006 - 08 - 28. Retrieved 2006 - 07 - 01. Jump up ^ Comet Space Missions, accessed 2007 - 10 - 23. Jump up ^ `` New Horizons NASA 's Pluto - Kuiper Belt Mission ''. 2006. Retrieved 2006 - 07 - 01. The Solar System The Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars Ceres Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Haumea Makemake Eris Planets Terrestrial planets Mercury Venus Earth Mars Giant planets Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Dwarf planets Ceres Pluto Haumea Makemake Eris Rings Jovian Saturnian ( Rhean ) Charikloan Chironean Uranian Neptunian Haumean Moons Terrestrial Moon Other near - Earth objects Martian Phobos Deimos Jovian Ganymede Callisto Io Europa all 69 Saturnian Titan Rhea Iapetus Dione Tethys Enceladus Mimas Hyperion Phoebe all 62 Uranian Titania Oberon Umbriel Ariel Miranda all 27 Neptunian Triton Proteus Nereid all 14 Plutonian Charon Nix Hydra Kerberos Styx Haumean Hiʻiaka Namaka Makemakean S / 2015 ( 136472 ) 1 Eridian Dysnomia Lists Solar System objects By size By discovery date Minor planets Gravitationally rounded objects Possible dwarf planets Natural satellites Comets Small Solar System bodies Meteoroids Minor planets moons Comets Damocloids Mercury - crossers Venus - crossers Venus trojans Near - Earth objects Earth - crossers Earth trojans Mars - crossers Mars trojans Asteroid belt Asteroids first discovered : Ceres Pallas Juno Vesta Families Notable asteroids Kirkwood gap Main - belt comets Jupiter trojans Jupiter - crossers Centaurs Saturn - crossers Uranus trojans Uranus - crossers Neptune trojans Cis - Neptunian objects Trans - Neptunian objects Neptune - crossers Plutoids Kuiper belt Plutinos Cubewanos Scattered disc Detached objects Sednoids Hills cloud Oort cloud Hypothetical objects Vulcan Vulcanoids Phaeton Planet V Theia Fifth giant Planets beyond Neptune Tyche Nemesis Planet Nine Exploration ( outline ) Discovery Astronomy Timeline Spaceflight Robotic spacecraft Human spaceflight Colonization List of probes Timeline Mercury Venus Moon Mars Ceres Asteroids Mining Comets Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Deep space Outline of the Solar System Portals Solar System Astronomy Earth sciences Mars Jupiter Uranus Cosmology Solar System → Local Interstellar Cloud → Local Bubble → Gould Belt → Orion Arm → Milky Way → Milky Way subgroup → Local Group → Virgo Supercluster → Laniakea Supercluster → Observable universe → Universe Each arrow ( → ) may be read as `` within '' or `` part of ''. Exploration of the Solar System Timeline of Solar System exploration Exploration of Mercury Venus Moon Mars Ceres Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Artificial objects On extra-terrestrial surfaces Moon Venus Mars In space Heliocentric orbit Leaving the Solar System Lists Solar System probes Landings on extraterrestrial bodies Objects at Lagrangian points Space exploration outline timeline Colonization and decolonization Earth Exploration Europe Americas Africa Asia Oceania Antarctica -- World oceans Colonization Americas Africa Asia Southeast Asia Oceania Antarctica World oceans Subterranea Decolonization Americas Africa Asia Oceania General topics Exploration Maritime history ( European ) Age of Discovery Solar System discovery Colonization Antiquity -- Imperialism Chartered companies Interventionism Colonialism chronology history empires wars Current : Non-Self - Governing Dependent Space Station -- Space Militarization Commercial use of space Empires in Modernity Overseas, major : British Dutch French German Italian Portuguese Spanish Overseas, minor : American Australian Austro - Hungarian Belgian Danish New Zealand Norwegian Polish - Lithuanian Swedish Mostly contiguous : American Chinese Japanese Ottoman Russian South African Decolonization Wars of national liberation -- Predecessors of sovereign states in Europe in South America Sovereign states formation dates Postcolonialism Independence Internal colonialism Nation - building Postcolonialism ( international relations ) Terra nullius Indigenous peoples Uncontacted peoples Outer space Exploration Mercury Venus Moon Lagrangian points Mars Phobos Ceres Asteroids Outer Solar System : Jupiter Europa Callisto Saturn Titan Uranus Neptune trans - Neptunian objects Pluto Colonization Mercury Venus Moon Lagrangian points Mars Phobos Asteroids Outer Solar System : Jupiter Europa Callisto Saturn Titan Uranus Neptune trans - Neptunian objects Pluto Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Discovery_and_exploration_of_the_Solar_System&oldid=826271569 '' Categories : Discovery and exploration of the Solar System Hidden categories : Articles to be expanded from December 2010 All articles to be expanded Articles using small message boxes Wikipedia articles in need of updating from August 2016 All Wikipedia articles in need of updating Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català فارسی Lietuvių Norsk Română Slovenčina Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 18 February 2018, at 05 : 29. 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Question: who discovered that the planets orbit the sun
Answer: Nicolaus Copernicus