Left: Pioneer 10’s view of Jupiter in March 1973. Proper: Webb Telescope’s view of Jupiter in July 2022. Picture: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Crew; picture processing by Judy Schmidt
For hundreds of years, astronomers had been restricted to ground-based observations of the planets, however now we use spacecraft to seize close-up views of our neighboring worlds. Excitingly, our views of photo voltaic system planets have been getting progressively higher over the many years, as these pictures attest.
The daybreak of the House Age lastly made it doable for humankind to seize close-up views of astronomical objects. We haven’t wasted this chance, sending probes to each planet in our photo voltaic system and even to Pluto, a dwarf planet positioned over 5 billion miles (8 billion kilometers) away.
The primary missions to the planets started within the Sixties, and it’s one thing we nonetheless get enthusiastic about. We’ve assembled a collection of pictures displaying a few of our earliest pictures of the planets in comparison with related portraits captured throughout current missions. Whatever the period or the standard, each has a narrative to inform, and every continues to stir the creativeness.
This text was initially revealed September 14, 2022.